Hito mo mada fumiminu yama no iwagakure nagaruru mizu o sode ni seku kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人もまだふみ見ぬ山の岩隠れ
流るる水を袖に堰くかな

Roma-ji: Hito mo mada fumiminu yama no iwagakure nagaruru mizu o sode ni seku kana
English Translation: On a mountain yet
no foot has trod, no letter seen,
hidden by the rocks,
the water flowing down
I dam up with my sleeve.
Meaning: Like water running hidden among the rocks of a mountain no one has yet set foot on, the tears I shed unknown to anyone I hold back with my sleeve.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 1098

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence on hidden love that can no longer be held back. The speaker holds back with her sleeve the tears that flow unseen, like water running in the shadow of rocks on a mountain no one has yet entered. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Shinano," is a lady-in-waiting's name, and there is no settled view of whom it refers to.

The first line, "hito mo mada," means "no one yet," and runs on to "fumiminu" in the second line.
In the second line, "fumiminu yama no," "fumi" holds both "fumi," to set foot, and "fumi," a love letter. It is a mountain no one has yet entered and, at the same time, a love in which no letter has yet been exchanged.
The third line, "iwagakure," means "hidden in the shadow of rocks," expressing a hidden love out of others' sight. The next poem also speaks of "iwa no hazama," so the shadow of rocks continues.
The fourth line, "nagaruru mizu o," means "the water that flows" in the rocks' shadow, a figure for tears shed in secret.
The last line, "sode ni seku kana," means "I dam it with my sleeve," "kana" voicing a sigh. The preceding poem said that damming makes the water rise; here there is nothing to do but dam the overflowing tears with a sleeve, and the two poems are set side by side through the same word "seku."
Author: Shinano
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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