Musubu te no shizuku ni nigoru yama no i no akade mo hito ni wakarenuru kana - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

結ぶ手の雫に濁る山の井の
飽かでも人に別れぬるかな

Roma-ji: Musubu te no shizuku ni nigoru yama no i no akade mo hito ni wakarenuru kana
English Translation: Like the mountain spring
clouded by the drops that fall
from cupped hands,
still unsatisfied,
I have parted from you.
Meaning: Like a shallow mountain spring that clouds with the drops falling from my cupped hands before I can drink my fill, I have parted from you before I could have my fill of your company.
Commentary: Book Eight Parting Poems 404

Headnote: "Composed when parting from someone with whom he had spoken beside a rock spring while crossing the mountain to Shiga"
This poem was composed on parting from someone with whom the poet had exchanged words beside a spring among the rocks while crossing the Shiga mountain road. The shallow mountain spring, clouded at once by the drops from cupped hands so that one cannot drink one's fill, serves as a figure for unsatisfied longing, expressing regret at parting before they could talk to their hearts' content.
The author, "Tsurayuki," was Ki no Tsurayuki, one of the compilers of the Kokinshū, who wrote its kana preface.
This poem is known for being praised highly by Fujiwara no Shunzei in his Korai Fūteishō as a poem that should be regarded as the very model of waka.

The first line, "from cupped hands," uses musubu for scooping water with both hands together. The upper three lines form a preface leading to akade, "unsatisfied," in the fourth line.
The second line, "clouded by the drops," shows how shallow the mountain spring is, so shallow that the drops falling from the scooping hands cloud it.
The third line, "the mountain spring," means spring water welling in the mountains, and the preface, through the idea of being unable to drink one's fill, connects to akade.
The fourth line, "still unsatisfied," uses the negative conjunctive de, meaning without being satisfied. Like "who parts unsatisfied" in poem 374 and "parting still unsatisfied" in poems 396 and 400 of this book, it shares words that sing of parting before one's fill.
The last line, "I have parted from you," ends with the perfective nuru and exclamatory kana, lamenting deeply that the parting has come.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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