Kage dani mo miezu nariyuku yama no i wa asaki yori mata mizu ya taenishi - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

影だにも見えずなりゆく山の井は
浅きよりまた水や絶えにし

Roma-ji: Kage dani mo miezu nariyuku yama no i wa asaki yori mata mizu ya taenishi
English Translation: Not even your reflection
can be seen there anymore—
the mountain well:
shallow to begin with,
has its water now run dry
Meaning: The mountain well no longer shows even a reflection: shallow from the start, has its water now run out as well?
Commentary: Book Nine Love Poems I 530

Headnote: "The man she had been waiting for sent no word for a long time, so she sent this."
The poet asks whether the mountain well, which no longer shows even a reflection, was shallow to begin with and has now run dry as well. Likening a man who has long sent no word to a shallow mountain well whose water has failed, she reproaches a shallow heart that has now broken off entirely.
According to the headnote, she sent it because the man she had been waiting for had long sent no word. The next poem is Taira no Sadafun's reply, and the two form a pair of exchanged poems. The conceit of the mountain well as an emblem of shallowness appears also in "Asakayama kage sae miyuru yama no i no asaki kokoro o waga omowanaku ni," cited in the kana preface of the Kokin Wakashū.
The poet, called "Ki no Menoto," is thought to have been a woman of the Ki clan who served as a wet nurse, but few details of her life have come down to us.

The first line, "Kage dani mo," means "not even a reflection," with "dani" meaning "even." "Kage wa mienu zo" in the last line of the next poem takes this up.
The second line, "miezu nariyuku," means "ceasing to be seen."
The third line, "yama no i wa," means "the mountain well, a shallow pool of spring water," sung as an emblem of shallowness.
The fourth line, "asaki yori mata," means "shallow to begin with, and further," referring to the man's shallow heart.
In the last line, "ya" is an interrogative particle forming a kakarimusubi pattern with the attributive "shi": "has its water run dry as well?"
Author: Ki no Menoto
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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