Yamashiro no Ide no tamamizu te ni kumite tanomishi kai mo naki yo narikeri - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

山城の井手の玉水手にくみて
たのみしかひもなき世なりけり

Roma-ji: Yamashiro no Ide no tamamizu te ni kumite tanomishi kai mo naki yo narikeri
English Translation: In Yamashiro
the clear water of Ide
dipped up in my hands—
all that I drank and trusted in
has come to nothing between us
Meaning: Like the clear water of Ide in Yamashiro, dipped up in my hands and drunk, I put my trust in you; yet it was all for nothing in the bond between us.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1368

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence on clear water. Having trusted the beloved as one drinks the clear water of Ide dipped up in the hands, the speaker laments a bond in which that trust came to nothing. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Anonymous," indicates a poet whose name has not come down.
Ide lay in Tsuzuki District of Yamashiro Province, present-day Ide in Tsuzuki District, Kyoto Prefecture. The Tama River flows there, and it has been sung as a place famed for yellow kerria and frogs.
This poem appears in Episode 122 of The Tales of Ise, where it is said to be sent by a man to one who broke a promise.

The first line, "Yamashiro no," names the province of the poetic site.
The second line, "Ide no tamamizu," takes up the "tamamizu" of the preceding poem. What was clear water in general there is here the water of the poetic site Ide.
The third line, "te ni kumite," means "dipping it up in my hands." Like "te ni musubite mo" in the preceding poem, it is the act of scooping water by hand. Up to the third line, the words lead to "tanomi."
In the fourth line, "tanomishi kai mo," "tanomi" is a pivot word joining "nomi" (drinking) the water dipped up by hand and "tanomi" (trusting) the other. It is the same verb as "tanomaji," the last line of the preceding poem: there the speaker would test before trusting, while here the speaker laments that the trust given came to nothing.
In the last line, "naki yo narikeri," "yo" means the bond between lovers. With "keri" of realization, the speaker exclaims at having come to know it was a fruitless bond.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Tamamizu o te ni musubite mo kokoromin nuruku wa ishi no naka mo tanomaji
Next Poem: Kimi ga atari mitsutsu o oran Ikomayama kumo na kakushi so ame wa furu tomo