Ina oraji tsuyu ni tamoto no nuretaraba mono omoikeri to hito mo koso mire - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いな折らじ露に袂の濡れたらば
物思ひけりと人もこそ見れ

Roma-ji: Ina oraji tsuyu ni tamoto no nuretaraba mono omoikeri to hito mo koso mire
English Translation: No, I will not break it;
if my sleeves should then be wet
with the dripping dew,
people might well look and say
I've been weeping, lost in love.
Meaning: No, I will not break the branch; if my sleeves were to be wet with dew, people might see it and think I had been weeping over love.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems II 532

Headnote: "At a certain place, when the attendant monks of a priest who had given a sermon were present, and someone behind the blinds asked them to break off a flowering branch"
The poet declines to break the branch, for if his sleeves were wet with dew, people might take it for tears shed over love. The headnote shows that at a certain place, where the attendant monks of a preaching priest were waiting, a lady behind the blinds asked them to break off a flowering branch, and this was the reply. Using as an excuse that a monk must avoid being suspected of tears of love, he wittily turns down the lady's request.
The author, Priest Jugen, is a monk of whom little is known.

First line, "ina oraji," means "no, I will not break it," with "ji" an auxiliary of negative volition. The poem breaks after this first line.
Second line, "tsuyu ni tamoto no," means "my sleeves with dew," speaking of sleeves wet with dew when breaking a branch.
Third line, "nuretaraba," means "if they were wet," with "ba" after the irrealis form expressing supposition.
Fourth line, "mono omoikeri to," means "that I had been brooding," relying on the idea that sleeves wet with tears are a sign of love's sorrow.
Final line, "hito mo koso mire," means "people might see it, and that would not do," with "mo koso" expressing apprehension and the binding particle "koso" resolved by the perfective form "mire."
Author: Priest Jugen
Source: Shui Wakashu
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