Nagarete wa yuku kata mo nashi namidagawa waga mi no ura ya kagiri naruramu - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

流れては行く方もなし涙川
我が身のうらや限りなるらむ

Roma-ji: Nagarete wa yuku kata mo nashi namidagawa waga mi no ura ya kagiri naruramu
English Translation: Flowing on and on,
it has nowhere left to go,
this River of Tears—
must the shore of my own self
be the end of its course
Meaning: My River of Tears flows on and has nowhere to go—could it be that the shore of my own self is where it ends?
Commentary: Book Ten Love Poems II 642

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet asks whether the River of Tears, which flows on with nowhere to go, must end at the shore of his own self. He laments that the tears of a love with no outlet return in the end to himself alone.
Ise's poem, 618 in this book, also sings of "waga mi no ura," sharing the grief of reproach turned upon oneself.
The poet, Fujiwara no Chikane, lived in the mid Heian period, and few details of his life have come down to us.

The first line, "Nagarete wa," means "though it flows on."
The second line, "yuku kata mo nashi," means "there is nowhere to go," and the poem pauses here.
The third line, "namidagawa," likens flowing tears to a river; it also appears in 610 to 612, 656, and 657 in this book.
In the fourth line, "ura" is a pivot word joining "ura," the bay where a river ends, and "ura," the heart or one's lot. "Ya" is an interrogative particle, and the line echoes "waga mi no ura wa" in the fourth and last lines of 618 in this book.
The last line, "kagiri naruramu," means "is it the end?" closing with the attributive "ramu" in answer to "ya" in the fourth line, a kakarimusubi pattern.
Author: Fujiwara no Chikane
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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