Yuku mizu no awa naraba koso kiekaeri hito no fuchise o nagarete mo mime - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

行く水の泡ならばこそ消えかへり
人の淵瀬を流れても見め

Roma-ji: Yuku mizu no awa naraba koso kiekaeri hito no fuchise o nagarete mo mime
English Translation: Were I but the foam
upon the flowing water,
vanishing and rising,
through the deeps and shallows of
your heart I'd drift and see.
Meaning: If only I were the foam on flowing water, vanishing and rising again, I would drift through the deeps and shallows of your heart and see.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Love Poems 1232

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that if only he were foam on flowing water, vanishing and rising again, he would drift through the deeps and shallows of the beloved's heart to see. Likening the depth and changes of the other's heart to the deep pools and quick shallows of a river, it sings of the frustration of one who would drift like foam to learn that heart, yet cannot. It shares with the next poem, 1233, the device of laying a person's heart over the depth of water.

First line, "yuku mizu no," means "of the flowing water."
Second line, "awa naraba koso," means "if only I were foam," with the binding particle "koso" resolved by the perfective "me" in the final line.
Third line, "kiekaeri," means "vanishing and rising again," the way of fleeting foam.
Fourth line, "hito no fuchise o," means "the deeps and shallows of that person," likening them to the depth and changeability of the other's heart. It answers the fourth line of the next poem, 1233, "fukasa asasa o," in measuring a heart by the depth of water.
Final line, "nagarete mo mime," means "I would drift and see," with "me" the perfective form of the conjectural "mu," resolving "koso" in the second line and implying that it cannot really be.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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