Tsuyu bakari okuran sode wa tanomarezu namida no kawa no takitsuse nareba - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

つゆばかり置くらん袖は頼まれず
涙の河の滝つ瀬なれば

Roma-ji: Tsuyu bakari okuran sode wa tanomarezu namida no kawa no takitsuse nareba
English Translation: Sleeves on which you say
but a little dew may settle
I cannot rely on;
for mine are the rapids now
of a river of my tears
Meaning: I cannot trust sleeves on which, you say, just a little dew settles; mine are the rushing rapids of a river of tears.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1350

Headnote: "Reply."
This is the fifteenth poem of the dew sequence and closes it. In reply to the preceding poem, the speaker says the emperor's sleeves, with only dewdrops of tears, cannot be trusted, since the speaker's own sleeves are the rapids of a river of tears, answering depth of feeling with the abundance of tears.
The author, "Anonymous," indicates a poet whose name has not come down. The headnote shows that this is the person who received Emperor Kōkō's poem.

In the first line, "tsuyu bakari," "tsuyu" is a pivot word: taking up the "dew of tears" of the preceding poem, it means dew and also "just a little."
In the second line, "okuran sode wa," "ran" is a conjecture close to hearsay: "the sleeves on which, you say, it settles." It answers "yonayona zo oku," the last line of the preceding poem.
The third line, "tanomarezu," means "cannot be relied on." The poem breaks after the third line.
In the fourth line, "namida no kawa no," the "dew" of the preceding poem is enlarged into a "river." The difference in scale between dew and river shows the difference in depth of feeling.
The last line, "takitsuse nareba," means "for they are rushing rapids." Here the dew sequence turns into a river of tears and passes on to the groups that follow.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kimi ga senu waga tamakura wa kusa nare ya namida no tsuyu no yonayona zo oku
Next Poem: Omoiyaru yoso no murakumo shigure tsutsu Adachi no hara ni momiji shinuran