Omoigawa taezu nagaruru mizu no awa no utakata hito ni awade kieme ya - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

思ひ川絶えず流るる水の泡の
うたかた人に逢はで消えめや

Roma-ji: Omoigawa taezu nagaruru mizu no awa no utakata hito ni awade kieme ya
English Translation: On the River of Longing
the bubbles of the water
flowing without end—
like them could I, even briefly,
vanish without meeting you
Meaning: Like the bubbles on the River of Longing that flows without end, could I ever vanish, even for a moment, without having met you?
Commentary: Book Nine Love Poems I 515

Headnote: "At a time when she had gone off without telling anyone where, a man who was her lover sent word that he had searched for her in vain for days and had thought she must have died."
The poet asks whether, like the bubbles on the River of Longing that flows without end, she could ever vanish without meeting him. Though likening herself to bubbles that easily vanish, she firmly declares that she will not disappear without seeing him.
According to the headnote, at a time when she had gone off without telling anyone where, her lover sent word that he had searched for her in vain for days and feared she had died, and she replied with this. Taking up his words "had died," she answers that she will not vanish like a bubble.
The poet, called "Ise," was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tsugukage. She served Empress Onshi, consort of Emperor Uda, and later received the emperor's favor. A leading woman poet of the Kokinshū era, she is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

The first line, "Omoigawa," is a poetic place said to be a river in the province of Chikuzen, likening unending thoughts of love to a river.
The second line, "taezu nagaruru," means "flowing without end," overlaid with longing that never ceases.
The third line, "mizu no awa no," has an extra syllable and means "of the bubbles on the water." The lines up to here form a preface leading to "utakata" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line, "utakata" is a pivot word meaning both "bubbles on the water" and "even for a moment, in the least."
In the last line, "de" is a negative conjunctive particle and "ya" is rhetorical: "could I vanish without meeting you? I will not." "Kie," to vanish, is an associated word with the bubbles.
Author: Ise
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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