Sonareki no sonare sonarete fusu koke no maho narazu tomo aimiteshi kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

磯馴木のそなれそなれて伏す苔の
まほならずとも逢ひ見てしかな

Roma-ji: Sonareki no sonare sonarete fusu koke no maho narazu tomo aimiteshi kana
English Translation: Like the shore-bent tree
grown so used, so used to the wind,
the moss lying low:
though it be not as it should,
how I long to meet with you
Meaning: Like the moss lying low on a shore-bent tree grown so used to the sea wind, even if it cannot be as it should, how I long to meet with you.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 804

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the heart of love when hundred-poem sequences were presented"
Like the preceding poem, a love poem from the Kyūan sequences. Like the moss lying on the shore-bent tree that has grown so used, so used to the sea wind, she says, even if not as it should be, I long to meet you. In a tree on the shore that has bent low under the endless sea wind, and the moss growing on it, she sees a love that cannot stand upright or take a proper form, and voices an urgent wish to meet even so. This poem closes the five love poems from the Kyūan sequences.
The author, "Taikenmon'in no Aki," was a lady-in-waiting to Taikenmon'in Fujiwara no Tamako, consort of Emperor Toba. She was one of the poets of the Kyūan sequences, but little is known of her career.

First line, "sonareki no": "sonareki" is a tree on the shore whose branches, blown by the sea wind, have bent to creep along the ground.
Second line, "sonare sonarete": repeating "sonare" from the first line, "grown so used, so used to the sea wind," the doubled word setting the rhythm.
Third line, "fusu koke no": "the moss on the tree lying low." The lines up to here work as a preface leading to "maho narazu" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "maho narazu tomo": "maho" is being complete and well formed, "even if not as it should be."
Fifth line, "aimiteshi kana": "teshi kana" is a final particle of one's own wish, "how I long to meet you and be yours."
Author: Taikenmon-in no Aki
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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