Naku namida ame to furanamu watarigawa mizu masarinaba kaeri kuru gani - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

泣く涙雨と降らなむ渡り川
水まさりなば帰りくるがに

Roma-ji: Naku namida ame to furanamu watarigawa mizu masarinaba kaeri kuru gani
English Translation: O tears that I weep,
fall down upon the world as rain;
the river of the dead—
if its waters rise and swell,
she might yet come back to me.
Meaning: Tears that I weep, fall as rain. If the waters of the river the dead must cross rise high enough, my sister may not be able to cross and may come back to this world.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Poems of Lament 829

Headnote: "Composed when his younger sister passed away"
Grieving his dead sister, the poet wishes that his tears would fall as rain and swell the river the dead must cross, so that she could not cross it and would return. Knowing it impossible, he still entrusts to the sheer volume of his tears the longing to pull the dead back to life. Placed at the head of the book of laments, it opens the book with grief for a family member.
The author, Ono no Takamura, was a court noble and poet of Chinese verse in the early Heian period who rose to the rank of Consultant. He is also known for refusing to board ship as vice-envoy to Tang China and being exiled to Oki, and for his talent and eccentricity he was called the "Mad Scholar."

The first line, "the tears I weep," refers to the poet's own tears. As the opening words of the book of laments, they begin the imagery of tears that recurs throughout the book.
The second line, "fall as rain," uses the particle namu to express a wish directed at something else. Tears likened to rain also appear in 843 in this book. The poem breaks after the second line.
The third line, "the river to be crossed," is the river the dead cross on their way to the underworld, the so-called River Sanzu.
The fourth line, "if its waters rise," is a supposition built on the auxiliary nu and the conditional ba.
The last line, "so that she may come back," uses gani, meaning "so that" or "because it may." By inversion, it gives afterward the reason for the wish in the second line.
Author: Ono no Takamura
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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