Hito shirezu otsuru namida no tsumoritsutsu kazu kaku bakari narinikeru kana - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人知れず落つる涙の積もりつつ
数かくばかりなりにけるかな

Roma-ji: Hito shirezu otsuru namida no tsumoritsutsu kazu kaku bakari narinikeru kana
English Translation: Falling unbeknownst,
my tears have gathered and grown,
piling up until
now they are enough to write
numbers on the flowing stream.
Meaning: My tears, falling where no one knows, have piled up until they have become this much—enough to write numbers on the water.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 878

Headnote: "Sent to a woman"
The poem says that tears falling unseen have piled up until they have become this much, enough to write numbers upon the water. By the abundance of tears shed in secret, it conveys to the woman the depth of a love he cannot confess.
According to the headnote, it was sent to a woman.
The author, "Fujiwara no Koreshige," was the son of Fujiwara no Masaki and was relied upon as a close aide of Emperor Kazan, earning the name "the regent of the fifth rank." When the emperor took vows, he followed him into religious life.
It draws on the Kokinshū poem in the first book of love poems, "More fleeting than writing numbers on flowing water is loving one who does not love you," laying the futile act of writing numbers on water over the tears.

First line, "hito shirezu," means "unknown to anyone."
Second line, "otsuru namida no," means "the tears that fall." Taking up the preceding sequence on the river of tears, poems of tears continue.
Third line, "tsumoritsutsu," means "piling up," with "tsutsu" expressing continuation.
Fourth line, "kazu kaku bakari," means "enough to write numbers, this much," with "kaku" a pivot word joining writing numbers on water and "kaku," thus. It shares the pairing of "kazu" and "kaku" with the fourth line of the next poem, 879, "kaku kazu naranu."
Final line, "narinikeru kana," means "it has come to be," with "kana" expressing exclamation.
Author: Fujiwara no Korenari
Source: Shui Wakashu
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