Toshigoto ni haru wa kuredomo ikemizu ni ouru nunawa wa taezu zo arikeru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

年ごとに春はくれども池水に
生ふるぬなはは絶えずぞ有りける

Roma-ji: Toshigoto ni haru wa kuredomo ikemizu ni ouru nunawa wa taezu zo arikeru
English Translation: Year after year, spring
comes and is reeled away, yet
in the waters of the pond,
the water shield that grows there
never once has broken off.
Meaning: Year after year spring comes and goes, yet the water shield growing in the pond, however much it is reeled in, never runs out.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Spring Poems 1058

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that though spring comes and goes each year, the water shield growing in the pond never runs out, however much it is pulled in. Pivoting on "kuru," spring's "coming" and the "reeling in" of the water shield, it sets the passing of spring against the water shield in the pond that never fails. Where the preceding poem, 1057, lamented a self that ages with each spring, this poem sings of something that does not fail with the springs, drawing a contrasting mood from the same first line.
The author, written as "Shitagō," is Minamoto no Shitagau. Of the Saga Genji line, he took part, as one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber, in compiling the Gosenshū and reading the Man'yōshū, and he compiled the dictionary Wamyō Ruijushō. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "toshigoto ni," means "year after year," the same line as the first line of the preceding poem, 1057.
Second line, "haru wa kuredomo," means "though spring comes," with "kure" a pivot word on spring "coming" and "reeling in" the water shield. It sings of the turning year in the same concessive form as the second line of 1001 in this book, "toshi wa kuredomo."
Third line, "ikemizu ni," means "in the pond water."
Fourth line, "ouru nunawa wa," means "the water shield growing there."
Final line, "taezu zo arikeru," means "never runs out," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by "keru," the attributive form of the past auxiliary "keri." "Kuru," to reel in, and "tayu," to break off, form associated words of the water shield's long stems.
Author: Minamoto no Shitagō
Source: Shui Wakashu
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