Namidagawa nagasu nezame mo aru mono o harau bakari no tsuyu ya nani nari - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

涙川流す寝覚めもあるものを
払ふばかりの露や何なり

Roma-ji: Namidagawa nagasu nezame mo aru mono o harau bakari no tsuyu ya nani nari
English Translation: There are wakings, too,
when rivers of tears flow on—
and so this dew
that you can merely brush away,
what is that to anyone
Meaning: There are nights I wake shedding a river of tears. What, then, is dew that can simply be brushed away?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems III 771

Headnote: "Reply."
In this reply the poet says that there are wakings when she sheds a river of tears, so what is dew that can be brushed away? To a man complaining of the dew from a night outside, she retorts that she herself wakes weeping a river.
It is the reply to the preceding poem, 770.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us. According to the headnote, it is the poem of the woman the poet of the preceding poem visited.

The first line, "Namidagawa," is a word likening flowing tears to a river.
The second line, "nagasu nezame mo," means "wakings when I shed tears," taking up "nezame ni" in the fourth line of the preceding poem.
The third line, "aru mono o," means "though there are," with "mono o" an adversative particle.
The fourth line, "harau bakari no," means "only enough to brush away," taking up "harawazaramashi" in the last line of the preceding poem. "Namidagawa" in the first line and dew that can be brushed off form a contrast of great and small.
The last line, "tsuyu ya nani nari," means "what is dew," closing with the same phrasing as "namida nani nari" in the last line of 722 in this book.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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