Taki no ito wa taete hisashiku narinuredo na koso nagarete nao kikoekere - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

滝の糸は絶えて久しく成りぬれど
名こそ流れてなほ聞こえけれ

Roma-ji: Taki no ito wa taete hisashiku narinuredo na koso nagarete nao kikoekere
English Translation: The waterfall's threads
have long since ceased to flow
and it has been long,
yet its name has flowed on and on
and is still heard even now.
Meaning: Long ago the threads of the waterfall ceased to flow, yet its name has flowed on through the world and is heard even now.
Commentary: Book Eight Miscellaneous Poems I 449

Headnote: "When many people went to Daikakuji, composed on the old waterfall"
The poet says that the waterfall long ago ceased to flow, yet its name has flowed down through the world and is still heard today. The headnote shows he composed it on the remains of an old waterfall when many went together to Daikakuji. At the dried falls of Daikakuji, once Emperor Saga's detached palace, he finds a fame that outlasts time. The skill of linking words tied to the falls, "tae," "nagare" and "kikoe," shines, and the poem closes the group of waterfall poems running from 445 in this book.
The author, Kintō, Intendant of the Right Gate Guards, is Fujiwara no Kintō. A son of the Regent Fujiwara no Yoritada, he rose to Provisional Major Counselor. He compiled the Wakan Rōeishū and is held to be the compiler of the Shūishō. He is counted among the Later Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
With its first line as "the sound of the falls," this poem was included in the Senzaishū and chosen for the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. The remains of these falls later came to be called the Nakoso Falls.

First line, "taki no ito wa," means "the threads of the falls," six syllables, one too many. It takes up the image of "the threads of the falls" running from 446 in this book.
Second line, "taete hisashiku," means "long since they ceased," with "tae" an associated word for thread.
Third line, "narinuredo," means "though it has become," with "nure" the perfective form of the perfective auxiliary "nu."
Fourth line, "na koso nagarete," means "its name has flowed on," with "nagare," flowing, an associated word for the falls and "koso" an emphatic particle.
Final line, "nao kikoekere," means "is still heard," resolving "koso" with the perfective form "kere." "Kikoe," heard, is an associated word for the sound of the falls, overlaid with the sense of fame being known.
Author: Fujiwara no Kintō
Source: Shui Wakashu
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