Ause naki namida no kawa ni shizumishi ya - Genji Monogatari(English Translation & Meaning)

逢ふ瀬なき涙の河に沈みしや
流るる澪の初めなりけむ

Roma-ji: Ause naki namida no kawa ni shizumishi ya
nagaruru mio no hajime narikemu
English Translation: Was it sinking down
into that river of tears
with no shoal to meet,
that made the beginning of
the channel I drift along
Meaning: Was it my sinking into that river of tears, where no shallows brought us together, that began the channel down which I am carried now?
Commentary: Part One: Suma

　While settling his affairs, Genji contrived to send a letter to Oborozukiyo. It was this affair that had brought him to exile, and though he knew she had reason not to write, he could not keep the reproach out of it. This poem went with that letter. She was deeply shaken and answered through tears she could not hold back.

　"Ause" is a lovers' meeting, and "se," a shoal, works within the river imagery. "The river of tears" is an old conventional figure. "Mio" is the channel where water runs, a word also used for its sound suggesting the ruin of a self. Here it is his own drifting condition told as a current. The chain from a lover's tears to an actual sentence of exile is built entirely out of words associated with water.
Author: Murasaki Shikibu
Source: Genji Monogatari
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Ause naki namida no kawa ni shizumishi ya nagaruru mio no hajime narikemu