Wakuraba ni nado ka wa hito no towazaran otonashigawa ni sumu mi nari tomo - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

わくらばになどかは人の問はざらん
音無川に住む身なりとも

Roma-ji: Wakuraba ni nado ka wa hito no towazaran otonashigawa ni sumu mi nari tomo
English Translation: Now and then at least,
why should no one send me word,
why no word at all—
though I dwell beside the stream
named the River Without Sound?
Meaning: Why should no one ever send me word, at least now and then—even if I live beside the Otonashi, the River Without Sound?
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1662

Headnote: "Sent from Kumano when, having long been away from the capital in religious practice, those who should have written did not write."
This is the first poem of a sequence on those secluded at Kumano. Even if he lives by the Otonashi River, why should no one send word now and then? According to the headnote, having long left the capital for religious practice, he sent this from Kumano when those who should have written did not.
The author, "Daisōjō Gyōson," was a son of Consultant Minamoto no Motohira and a monk of Onjōji. He practiced long at Ōmine and Kumano and later became Tendai Abbot.
The Otonashi River flows near the Kumano Hongū Shrine in Kii Province. Kumano, the site of the Three Shrines of Kumano, was revered as a place of religious practice.

The first line, "wakuraba ni," means "now and then, rarely."
The second line, "nado ka wa hito no," means "why would people." "Ka wa" expresses a rhetorical question.
The third line, "towazaran," means "should they not write?" Through the rhetorical question, it urges that there ought to be word now and then.
The fourth line, "otonashigawa ni," means "by the Otonashi River" of Kumano. On the river's name, "without sound," is laid the loneliness of hearing no word.
The last line, "sumu mi nari tomo," means "even if I live there." "Tomo" expresses an adversative supposition. Playing on the name, it asks for word: living by the River Without Sound does not mean one should hear nothing. Taking up the dwindling visits to the mountain village in the preceding sequence, it sings of a heart asking for word from a distant place of practice.
Author: Gyōson
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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