Hitome o mo tsutsumanu mono to omoiseba sode no namida no kakaramashi ya wa - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人目をもつつまぬものと思ひせば
袖の涙のかからましやは

Roma-ji: Hitome o mo tsutsumanu mono to omoiseba sode no namida no kakaramashi ya wa
English Translation: Had I only thought
that there was no need to hide
from the eyes of others,
would the tears have fallen so
upon these sleeves of mine?
Meaning: Had I thought I need not hide from people's eyes, would my sleeves have been so drenched with tears?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 764

Headnote: "When the one he was secretly courting was in a place crowded with people"
The poem says that had the poet thought he could meet without regard to people's eyes, his sleeves would not have been so wet with tears. The headnote shows it was composed when the one he was secretly courting was in a place crowded with people. It expresses through the tears on the sleeve the pain of being unable to meet for fear of being seen. Sharing "kakaru" with the preceding poem, 763, it closes the sequence on sleeves wet with tears.
The author, written as "Sanekata Ason," is Fujiwara no Sanekata. A grandson of Fujiwara no Morotada, Minister of the Left, he served as Middle Captain of the Left Palace Guards, became Governor of Michinoku, and died at his post. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Later Immortal Poets and is known for his poem "kaku to dani e ya wa Ibuki no sashimogusa" in the Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "hitome o mo," means "from people's eyes."
Second line, "tsutsumanu mono to," means "that there was no need to hide," with "tsutsumu" meaning to conceal for fear of being seen.
Third line, "omoiseba," means "had I thought," with "se" taken as the irrealis form of the past auxiliary "ki," together with "ba" forming a counterfactual supposition.
Fourth line, "sode no namida no," means "the tears on my sleeves."
Final line, "kakaramashi ya wa," means "would they have fallen? no," with "mashi" counterfactual and "ya wa" rhetorical. It uses the same word as the fourth line of the preceding poem, 763, "kakarikeri tomo."
Author: Fujiwara no Sanekata
Source: Shui Wakashu
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