Ika ni semu Shinobu no yama no shitamomiji shigururu mama ni iro no masaru o - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いかにせむしのぶの山の下紅葉
しぐるるままに色のまさるを

Roma-ji: Ika ni semu Shinobu no yama no shitamomiji shigururu mama ni iro no masaru o
English Translation: What am I to do?
The lower leaves of Shinobu,
the hill of secrets,
with every shower that falls,
grow ever deeper in their hue
Meaning: What am I to do? The lower leaves on Mount Shinobu, the mountain of hidden love, deepen in color with every shower that falls, just as my love shows more with every tear.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 691

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
What am I to do, she says, as the lower leaves of Mount Shinobu deepen in color with each shower? Overlaying her secret love on the reddened lower leaves of the trees, she voices the pain of a love whose color deepens each time it is wet by the showers of tears, so that it shows however she tries to hide it.
The author, "Hitachi of the Former Empress of Emperor Nijō," was a lady-in-waiting who served Emperor Nijō's empress. Little is known of her life.
Like the preceding poem, 690, it sings of "Shinobu no yama" and showers, answering it by saying that the color of the lower leaves deepens. Its first line, "ika ni semu," is the same as in 646, 668 and 703 of this book. The next poem, 692, also says that showers pour upon the sleeves.

First line, "ika ni semu": "what am I to do?" The poem pauses here and stands in inverted order with the last line. Poems 646, 668 and 703 open with the same line.
Second line, "Shinobu no yama no": "shinobu" combines Mount Shinobu in Michinoku and "shinobu," "to endure in secret." It is the same famed place as "Shinobu no yama mo" in the fourth line of the preceding poem.
Third line, "shitamomiji": the reddened lower leaves of a tree, a figure for secret love.
Fourth line, "shigururu mama ni": "shigururu" means for showers to fall, overlaid with shedding tears, "as the showers fall."
Fifth line, "iro no masaru o": "as the color deepens," turning back to "ika ni semu" in the first line, overlaid with love showing itself.
Author: Hitachi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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