Nigoriyuku mizu ni wa kage no mieba koso ashi mayou e o todomete mo mime - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

濁りゆく水には影の見えばこそ
あしまよふえをとどめても見め

Roma-ji: Nigoriyuku mizu ni wa kage no mieba koso ashi mayou e o todomete mo mime
English Translation: If only your face
showed in waters growing dim
with mud, I might keep
this flute, like a cove where reeds
are tossed, and look on it still
Meaning: If your image still showed in water that grows ever muddier, I might keep this flute here, like a cove where the reeds are tossed, and look on it; but it does not.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems VI 1023

Headnote: "Composed when Hitoshi had begun to drift away, on sending back a flute he had left with her."
The poet says that if his image still showed in the darkening water, she might keep the flute, like a cove with tossing reeds, and look on it. Since his heart has clouded and his image can no longer be seen, she says there is no point keeping the flute as a keepsake, and sends it back.
According to the headnote, she wrote it on returning the flute she had been keeping when Minamoto no Hitoshi stopped calling. In the preceding poem, 1022, Hitoshi was the one resenting; here he is the one departing, so the positions of resenting and resented are reversed in poems set side by side. It shares the waterside images of Suminoe and Naniwa in the preceding poem.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Nigoriyuku," means "growing ever muddier," standing for the lover's changing heart.
The second line, "mizu ni wa kage no," means "in the water, your image," likening his face and sincerity to a reflection on the water.
The third line, "mieba koso," means "if only it showed," with "koso" an emphatic binding particle closed by the perfective "me" in the last line.
The fourth line, "ashi mayou e o," means "the cove where reeds are tossed," with "fue" joining "e," a cove, and "fue," a flute. It echoes the waterside of Suminoe and Naniwa in the preceding poem.
The last line, "todomete mo mime," means "I might keep it and look on it," with "me" the perfective of the auxiliary of intention "mu." It implies that this will not be so, and in fact she returns the flute.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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