Toshi o hete kimi o nomi koso nezumitsure kotohara ni ya wa ko o ba umu beki - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

年を経て君をのみこそねずみつれ
ことはらにやは子をば産むべき

Roma-ji: Toshi o hete kimi o nomi koso nezumitsure kotohara ni ya wa ko o ba umu beki
English Translation: Through the passing years
it is only by your side
that I've slept and dwelt;
how then in another womb
should I bring my young to birth?
Meaning: For years I have slept and dwelt only with you; how could I give birth to my young in another's belly?
Commentary: Book Seven Names of Things 421

Headnote: "On a mouse that gave birth to young inside the belly of a koto"
Taking the part of the mouse, the poet says that having slept and dwelt only with its master for years, why would it give birth in another's belly? According to the headnote, it was composed on seeing that a mouse had given birth inside the body of a koto. Playing on the mouse's name in "nezumitsure" of the third line and on the koto's belly in "kotohara" of the fourth, the poet turns an odd event into wit.
The author, written as Sukemi, is Fujiwara no Sukemi. A son of Fujiwara no Hirotsune, he was a mid-Heian poet known as Tōroku. He excelled at poems hiding the names of things, and his personal collection is the Tōrokushū.

First line, "toshi o hete," means "through long years."
Second line, "kimi o nomi koso," means "only with you," emphasized by the particle "koso."
Third line, "nezumitsure," means "I have slept and dwelt," playing on "nezumi," mouse. It resolves "koso" in the perfective "tsure," and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "kotohara ni ya wa," plays on "kotohara" as another's belly and as the belly of a koto, with "ya wa" a rhetorical question.
Final line, "ko o ba umu beki," means "should I give birth to my young," ending in the attributive "beki" after the rhetorical question. It echoes "kōba ikade ka umamu" in 354 at the head of the book, through giving birth to young.
Author: Fujiwara no Sukemi
Source: Shui Wakashu
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