Nagarete no yo o mo tanomazu mizu no ue no awa ni kienuru ukimi to omoeba - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

流れての世をも頼まず水の上の
泡に消えぬる憂き身と思へば

Roma-ji: Nagarete no yo o mo tanomazu mizu no ue no awa ni kienuru ukimi to omoeba
English Translation: On the flowing years
I place no hope, nor on the world,
since, like the bubbles
on the water, I believe
this sad self will fade away
Meaning: I place no trust in the world as it flows on ahead, for I think of myself as a wretched thing that will vanish like foam upon the water.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1115

Headnote: "When I said that the world did not go as I wished, someone told me that, with such a promising future, this could not be so."
The poet says that he places no trust in the world as it flows on, for he thinks of himself as a wretched thing that will vanish like foam on the water. Consoled that he has a future ahead of him, he answers through related words of water and foam that a fleeting self has no future to speak of.
According to the headnote, when he said that the world did not go as he wished, someone told him that one with so promising a future could not have such troubles, and he composed this.
The poet, Ōe no Chisato, was a son of Ōe no Otondo and known as a scholar of Chinese learning. He wrote the Kudai Waka, poems composed on lines of Chinese verse, and the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu includes his poem "Tsuki mireba chiji ni mono koso kanashikere."

The first line, "Nagarete no," means "of what flows on," overlaying the passing of time with flowing water and serving as a word related to "water" in the third line.
The second line, "yo o mo tanomazu," means "I place no trust in the world to come," answering "yukusaki tanomoshiki," a promising future, in the headnote. The poem pauses here.
The third line, "mizu no ue no," means "on the water," with an extra syllable.
The fourth line, "awa ni kienuru," means "vanishing like foam," with "nuru" the attributive of the perfective auxiliary.
The last line, "ukimi to omoeba," means "since I think myself a wretched thing," adding in inverted order the reason for the second line.
Author: Oe no Chisato
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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