Nukimidaru namida no tama mo tomaru ya to tama no o bakari awamu to iwanan - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

貫き乱る涙の玉もとまるやと
玉の緒ばかり逢はむと言はなん

Roma-ji: Nukimidaru namida no tama mo tomaru ya to tama no o bakari awamu to iwanan
English Translation: My tears scatter down
like jewels slipped from their thread;
that they might be stilled,
if just for a jewel-cord's span,
say to me that we may meet.
Meaning: So that the tears scattering like jewels slipped from their string might stop, I wish you would say we could meet, if only for the brief length of a jewel's cord.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 647

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem asks the beloved to say they might meet, if only for the briefest while, so that the tears scattering like jewels slipped from their thread might stop. Likening tears to jewels falling loose from a cord, and overlaying "tama no o," the cord that strings jewels, with the sense of a very short time, it expresses the wish to meet if only for a moment.

First line, "nukimidaru," means "slipping loose and scattering," as jewels fall from a broken cord.
Second line, "namida no tama mo," means "even the jewels of my tears," likening tears to jewels loosed from their thread.
Third line, "tomaru ya to," means "that they might stop," with "ya" interrogative.
Fourth line, "tama no o bakari," means "for just a jewel-cord's span," "tama no o" being the cord that strings jewels and, from its shortness, a brief time. It repeats "tama" from the second line and, with "nuki" in the first line, forms associated words.
Final line, "awamu to iwanan," means "I wish you would say we may meet," with "nan" a final particle expressing a wish directed at another.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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