Kagiri naki namida no tsuyu ni musubarete hito no shimo to wa naru ni ya aru ran - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

限りなき涙の露に結ばれて
人のしもとはなるにやあるらん

Roma-ji: Kagiri naki namida no tsuyu ni musubarete hito no shimo to wa naru ni ya aru ran
English Translation: The endless tears I shed,
like dewdrops bound in frost,
congeal and harden—
am I, then, to become the frost
that lies beneath all others?
Meaning: My endless tears, like dew that freezes and binds into frost—will I, then, end up as frost, lying below everyone else?
Commentary: Book Eight Miscellaneous Poems I 503

Headnote: "When the Nijō Minister of the Right summoned Saeki no Kiyotada, a sergeant of the Left Guards, to compose a poem, at a time when his hopes had not been fulfilled"
The poet asks whether, as his endless tears of dew freeze into frost, he will end up below everyone else. The headnote shows he composed it when the Nijō Minister of the Right summoned him to compose a poem, at a time when what he hoped for had not come to pass. Overlaying on the image of tear-dew turning to frost a self left behind in a low rank, he pleads his misfortune. Taking up the dew of the preceding group, laments of a self denied advancement continue from here through 505 in this book.
The author, Saeki no Kiyotada, was according to the headnote a sergeant of the Left Inner Palace Guards, but the details of his life are unclear.

First line, "kagiri naki," means "endless."
Second line, "namida no tsuyu ni," means "the dew of tears," singing the dew that runs through the preceding poems as the dew of tears.
Third line, "musubarete," means "binding and freezing," describing dew turning to frost.
Fourth line, "hito no shimo to wa," means "below others." "Shimo" is a pivot word joining "shimo," the frost into which dew binds, and "shimo," lower in rank than others.
Final line, "naru ni ya aru ran," means "will I become," eight syllables, one too many. "Ya" is a questioning particle resolved by the attributive "ran." It is the same line as the final line of 495 in this book.
Author: Saeki no Kiyotada
Source: Shui Wakashu
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