classic waka stream

多摩川にさらす手作りさらさらに
なにぞこの子のここだ愛しき
Roma-ji

Tamagawa ni sarasu tezukuri sarasara ni nani zo kono ko no kokoda kanashiki

English Translation
In the Tama River
handwoven cloth is bleaching:
now, yet more and more,
why should this girl, oh why should she
be so dear to me as this?
Meaning
Like the handwoven cloth bleached in the Tama River—why, now more than ever, is this girl so very dear to me?
Commentary
Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3373

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
Watching a girl bleach handwoven cloth in the Tama River, the singer is struck anew by how unbearably dear she is. The light music of "sarasu" and "sarasara," echoing the river's flow and the fluttering cloth, has made this one of the best-loved Azuma uta.
The left note reads "The nine poems above are from Musashi Province," so the nine poems from here are from Musashi, covering present-day Tokyo, Saitama, and part of Kanagawa. The place name Chōfu along the Tama is said to derive from this handwoven cloth.
The poet is unknown. The Azuma uta are thought to have been sung among the people of the eastern provinces, and they are marked by plain, open-hearted expression mixed with local dialect.

First line, "tamagawa ni": The Tama River flowing through Musashi, placed at the head of the Musashi poems.
Second line, "sarasu tezukuri": "Tezukuri" is handwoven cloth, and the line sings of bleaching it white in the river.
Third line, "sarasara ni": A word drawn from "sarasu" by repeated sound, meaning "now all the more." The first three lines form a preface.
Fourth line, "nani zo kono ko no": "Nani zo" means "why," with "zo" as a binding particle answered by the attributive "kanashiki."
Final line, "kokoda kanashiki": "Kokoda" means so very much; "kanashiki" closes in the attributive form required by "zo."
Source
Manyoshu
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