Miredo akanu Yoshino no kawa no nagarete mo tayuru toki naku yukikaeri mimu - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

見れど飽かぬ吉野の河の流れても
絶ゆる時なく行き帰り見む

Roma-ji: Miredo akanu Yoshino no kawa no nagarete mo tayuru toki naku yukikaeri mimu
English Translation: Never tiring though I gaze,
like the Yoshino River
flowing ever on,
without a moment's break, I
will come back again to see.
Meaning: Like the Yoshino River, on which I gaze and never tire, flowing on without a break, I will come and go and see it again and again.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems II 570

Headnote: "Envoy"
The poet says that, like the Yoshino River which one never tires of seeing, he will come and go without end to look upon this place again and again. The headnote, "Envoy," shows it was attached to the preceding long poem, 569, praising the Yoshino palace. Taking up the long poem's final line, "miredo akanu kamo," as its first line, it praises the eternal glory of the Yoshino palace by laying it over the river's unending flow.
The author, written as "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A court poet who served in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, he is revered as the Saint of Poetry.
In Book One of the Man'yōshū, a poem of nearly the same import appears as an envoy to a long poem Kakinomoto no Hitomaro composed on an imperial visit to the Yoshino palace.

First line, "miredo akanu," means "never tiring though I gaze," a hypermetric line of six syllables. It takes up the final line of the long poem, 569, "miredo akanu kamo."
Second line, "Yoshino no kawa no," means "of the Yoshino River," the river flowing through Yoshino in Yamato. It shares the place name Yoshino with the third line of 563, "Yoshinoyama."
Third line, "nagarete mo," means "as it flows," and up to here the lines act as a preface leading to "tayuru toki naku" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "tayuru toki naku," means "without ever breaking off," layering the river's flow over the lasting praise of the Yoshino palace.
Final line, "yukikaeri mimu," means "I will come and go to see," with "mu" an auxiliary of intention.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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