Nagarekuru taki no ito koso yowakarashi nukedo midarete otsuru shiratama - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

流れ来る滝の糸こそ弱からし
貫けど乱れて落つる白玉

Roma-ji: Nagarekuru taki no ito koso yowakarashi nukedo midarete otsuru shiratama
English Translation: The waterfall's threads,
flowing, falling, it would seem,
are weak and slender—
though strung, they scatter in disarray,
the white beads tumbling down.
Meaning: The threads of the falling waterfall must be weak, for though they are strung with beads, the white beads scatter in disarray as they fall.
Commentary: Book Eight Miscellaneous Poems I 448

Headnote: "In the thirteenth year of Engi, poems for four screens of the Kamo Priestess, by command"
The poet says that the threads of the falling waterfall must be weak, for the white beads strung on them scatter and fall. The headnote shows it was composed by command in the thirteenth year of Engi for four screens belonging to the Kamo Priestess. Where the preceding poem, 447, saw the threads of the falls as a cord threading beads, this one says the thread is weak and the beads tumble loose, reversing the same image. The two poems sharing the first line "nagarekuru" are set side by side.
The author, written as Tsurayuki, is Ki no Tsurayuki. The leading compiler of the Kokinshū, he wrote its kana preface and the Tosa Diary. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "nagarekuru," means "flowing down," the same line as the first line of the preceding poem.
Second line, "taki no ito koso," means "the threads of the falls," with "koso" an emphatic particle.
Third line, "yowakarashi," means "must be weak," with "rashi" an auxiliary of inference from evidence, resolving "koso." The poem breaks here.
Fourth line, "nukedo midarete," means "though strung, in disarray," giving the grounds for inferring the thread is weak.
Final line, "otsuru shiratama," means "the white beads falling," ending on a noun. The white beads are the spray of the falls, taking up "the cord of beads" of the preceding poem.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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