Omoi seku kokoro no uchi no taki nare ya otsu to wa miredo oto no kikoenu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

思ひせく心の内の滝なれや
落つとは見れど音の聞こえぬ

Roma-ji: Omoi seku kokoro no uchi no taki nare ya otsu to wa miredo oto no kikoenu
English Translation: Is it a waterfall
in a heart that dams its longing,
hidden deep within?
I can see its waters fall,
yet no sound comes to my ears.
Meaning: Is it the waterfall within a heart that holds back its longing? I see it falling, yet I cannot hear its sound.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems I 930

Headnote: "Composed when, in the Tamura reign, the emperor was viewing a painted screen in the ladies' quarters and, finding the scene of a falling waterfall charming, commanded those in attendance to compose on it"
In the reign of Emperor Montoku, while viewing a painted screen in the ladies' quarters, the emperor found the falling waterfall charming and commanded those present to compose on it. The silence of the painted falls is likened to a waterfall within a heart that holds back its longing and cannot voice it, skillfully overlaying hidden feeling.
The author, "Sanjō no Machi," is Ki no Shizuko, daughter of Ki no Natora, who became a consort of Emperor Montoku and bore Prince Koretaka.
The group on waterfalls closes with this poem, and from the next poem, poems on painted screens follow.

First line "omoi seku" means damming up one's feelings, showing a longing that cannot be spoken.
Second line "kokoro no uchi no" means within the heart, likening the painted falls to falls within the heart.
Third line "taki nare ya" is the perfective form with the question ya: can it be a waterfall? The poem pauses here.
Fourth line "otsu to wa miredo" uses the adversative do: though I see it falling.
Fifth line "oto no kikoenu" closes with nu, the attributive of the negative zu. The silence of a painted waterfall is laid over a hidden longing that finds no voice.
Author: Sanjō no Machi
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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