Minasoko no waku bakari ni ya kukuru ran yoru hito mo naki taki no shiraito - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

水底のわくばかりにやくくるらん
よる人もなき滝の白糸

Roma-ji: Minasoko no waku bakari ni ya kukuru ran yoru hito mo naki taki no shiraito
English Translation: Does it bind and dive
so that the water's depths
well up from below,
this white thread of the waterfall
that no one comes to twist or touch?
Meaning: Is it diving and winding so that the depths of the water well up below, this white thread of the waterfall that no one twists, that no one comes near?
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems II 555

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet asks whether the white thread of the waterfall, which no one twists and no one approaches, is diving through the water so that its depths well up. Likening the falling water to white thread, and pivoting on "yoru," to "twist" and to "approach," and "kukuru," to "bind" and to "dive," it describes the waterfall while stringing together words associated with thread. Together with the next poem, 556, it is a poem on a waterfall.
The final line of the main text reads "taki no shiraito," which does not match "taki no iraito" in the reading line. Here the main text is followed.

First line, "minasoko no," means "the bottom of the water."
Second line, "waku bakari ni ya," means "so that it wells up," with the binding particle "ya" resolved by "ran" in the third line.
Third line, "kukuru ran," is a pivot word: "kukuru" means to "dive" through water and to "bind" thread. "Ran" is the attributive form of the conjectural auxiliary, and the poem breaks after this third line. The lower verse gives the subject in inverted order.
Fourth line, "yoru hito mo naki," is a pivot word: "yoru" means to "twist" thread and to "approach." It layers no one twisting with no one coming near. It is the same pairing as the "yoru" of twisting thread asked about in the final line of 520 in this book, "yoru to iu ran."
Final line, "taki no shiraito," likens the waterfall's flow to white thread and ends on a noun. With "kukuru" in the third line and "yoru" in the fourth, it forms a set of words associated with thread.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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