Takitsuse ni tare shiratama o midariken hirou to seshi ni sode wa hichiniki - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

滝つ瀬に誰白玉を乱りけん
拾ふとせしに袖はひちにき

Roma-ji: Takitsuse ni tare shiratama o midariken hirou to seshi ni sode wa hichiniki
English Translation: Into the rapids
who can it be that scattered
these pearls of white?
I tried to gather them up,
and my sleeves were drenched through
Meaning: Who could have scattered these white pearls into the rushing rapids? When I tried to gather them up, my sleeves were soaked through.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems III 1235

Headnote: "When he visited someone's house and the waterfall on the garden stream was very delightful, he sent this after returning home."
The poet asks who scattered white pearls into the rapids, and says his sleeves were soaked when he tried to gather them. Seeing the spray of the garden waterfall as white pearls, he conveys to his host how taken he was with its beauty by saying he wet his sleeves.
According to the headnote, he visited someone's house, and the waterfall set in the garden stream was so delightful that he sent this after going home. From this poem on, the book gathers poems on waterfalls.
The poet is anonymous and the name is not known. The text gives the poet as "yomibito mo," but it is treated here as anonymous.

The first line, "Takitsuse ni," means "into the rushing rapids." Like 1217 and 1239 of this book, it speaks of "takitsuse."
The second line, "tare shiratama o," means "who, the white pearls," seeing the spray as pearls.
The third line, "midariken," means "could have scattered," with "ken" conjecture about the past. The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "hirou to seshi ni," means "when I tried to gather them."
The last line, "sode wa hichiniki," means "my sleeves were soaked through," conveying, through sleeves wet from gathering the pearls of spray, how the waterfall's beauty drew him.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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