Asamashi ya ko no shitakage no iwashimizu ikuso no hito no kage o mitsuran - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あさましや木の下陰の岩清水
幾その人の影を見つらん

Roma-ji: Asamashi ya ko no shitakage no iwashimizu ikuso no hito no kage o mitsuran
English Translation: How shallow, how base!
The clear spring among the rocks
in the shade of trees—
how many people's faces
has it mirrored, I wonder?
Meaning: How appalling! That shallow spring among the rocks in the shade of the trees—how many people's faces must it have mirrored?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 881

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem expresses dismay: just as the shallow spring welling in the shade of the trees has mirrored so many people, with how many has that lover been involved? It likens the fickle heart of a lover to a shallow spring that reflects anyone who comes.

First line, "asamashi ya," means "how appalling," joining "asashi," shallow, and "asamashi." It lets the shallowness of the spring resound, and the poem breaks here. It uses the same word as the fourth line of the preceding poem, 880, "asamashiki made."
Second line, "ko no shitakage no," means "in the shade beneath the trees."
Third line, "iwashimizu," is clear water welling up between rocks, taken as shallow, limpid water that mirrors a person's figure.
Fourth line, "ikuso no hito no," means "of how many people."
Final line, "kage o mitsuran," means "must it have mirrored," with "tsu" perfective and "ran" an auxiliary of present conjecture. Where the final line of 875 in this book, "kage ya miyuru to," waits for the beloved's image, here the water that has mirrored many figures rebukes a lover's fickleness.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
Prev Poem: Saoshika no tsume dani hijinu yamagawa no asamashiki made towanu kimi kana
Next Poem: Yuku mizu no awa naraba koso kiekaeri hito no fuchise o nagarete mo mime