Uramitsutsu nuru yo no sode no kawakanu wa makura no shita ni shio ya mitsuran - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

恨みつつ寝る夜の袖の乾かぬは
枕の下に潮や満つらん

Roma-ji: Uramitsutsu nuru yo no sode no kawakanu wa makura no shita ni shio ya mitsuran
English Translation: Resenting, I sleep,
and my sleeves this night stay wet—
the reason, it must be:
beneath my pillow, the sea
tide is rising to the full
Meaning: If the sleeves I sleep in while resenting him never dry, is it because the tide is rising beneath my pillow?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1377

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the sequence on sleeves and waters. The speaker asks whether the sleeves stay wet on nights spent resenting because the tide is rising beneath the pillow, likening abundant tears to the sea tide. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Kiyohara no Fukayabu," was a poet of the early Heian period who served as Senior Secretary of the Palace Storehouse Bureau. He was the great-grandfather of Sei Shōnagon.

The first line, "uramitsutsu," means "while resenting." "Urami" suggests "ura" (a bay), echoing the tide below.
The second line, "nuru yo no sode no," refers to the sleeves of a night spent alone in resentment.
The third line, "kawakanu wa," means "that they do not dry." It takes up the same lament as "kawaku toki naki," the last line of 1375.
The fourth line, "makura no shita ni," pictures the sea beneath the pillow of the bedchamber.
In the last line, "shio ya mitsuran," "ya" is a questioning particle, closed by the attributive "ran." From the river of the preceding poem, the scale of water grows here to the sea tide, continuing into the "incoming tide" of the next poem.
Author: Kiyohara no Fukayabu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Misogi suru Nara no ogawa no kawakaze ni inori zo wataru shita ni taeji to
Next Poem: Ashibe yori michikuru shio no iyamashi ni omou ka kimi o wasure kanetsuru