Namidagawa soko no mikuzu to narihatete koishiki seze ni nagare koso sure - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

涙川底の水屑となりはてて
恋しき瀬々に流れこそすれ

Roma-ji: Namidagawa soko no mikuzu to narihatete koishiki seze ni nagare koso sure
English Translation: In the river of tears,
sunk as rubbish on its bed,
I have become, and so
at every shallow of longing
I am carried down the stream.
Meaning: I have become mere rubbish sunk on the bed of the river of tears, swept along at every turn of longing.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 877

Headnote: "A poem written in response to the Man'yōshū"
The poem says that I have become like waste sunk at the bottom of the river of tears, carried along at every moment when longing grows. It likens the self, made wretched by the tears of love, to rubbish on a riverbed.
The headnote shows that it was written in response to a poem in the Man'yōshū.
The author, "Minamoto no Shitagō," is Minamoto no Shitagō of the Saga Genji, one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber who compiled the Gosenshū and worked on reading the Man'yōshū. He compiled the dictionary Wamyō Ruijushō and is one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
Following the preceding poem, it is the third in the sequence on the "river of tears." The second line of the main text reads "soko no mikuzu to," which does not match "sode no mikuzu to" in the reading line; here the main text is followed. By the reading line, the sense would be the waste of the sleeve.

First line, "namidagawa," likens tears to a river, the same opening as the preceding poems, 875 and 876.
Second line, "soko no mikuzu to," means "as rubbish sunk on the riverbed." It takes up the end of the tears that flowed past the "weir of the sleeve" of the preceding poem as waste at the bottom of the river.
Third line, "narihatete," means "having utterly become."
Fourth line, "koishiki seze ni," means "at every moment of longing," with "se" joining the shallows of a river and an occasion or moment.
Final line, "nagare koso sure," means "I am swept along," concluding in "sure," the realis of the verb "su," in answer to the binding particle "koso."
Author: Minamoto no Shitagō
Source: Shui Wakashu
Prev Poem: Namidagawa otsuru minakami hayakereba seki zo kanetsuru sode no shigarami
Next Poem: Hito shirezu otsuru namida no tsumoritsutsu kazu kaku bakari narinikeru kana