Tsurezure to omoeba uki ni ouru ashi no hakanaki yo o ba ikaga tanomamu - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

つれづれと思へばうきに生ふる葦の
はかなきよをばいかが頼まむ

Roma-ji: Tsurezure to omoeba uki ni ouru ashi no hakanaki yo o ba ikaga tanomamu
English Translation: Lost in idle thought,
I think of reeds that grow
in the gloomy mire;
how could I trust a bond
as short as their brief joints?
Meaning: Brooding on it, I think: how could I rely on a bond as fleeting as the short joints of reeds growing in a gloomy marsh?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Love Poems 1248

Headnote: "When a man who rarely came kept making her trust his promises"
The poet says that, brooding on it, she cannot rely on a bond as fleeting as the short joints of reeds in a gloomy marsh. The headnote shows it was her poem when a man who rarely visited kept making promises for her to trust. Laying the painful, fleeting bond between them over the short joints of reeds growing in mud, she reproaches the man, saying she cannot believe promises that are mere words.

First line, "tsurezure to," means "lost in idle brooding."
Second line, "omoeba uki ni," means "thinking it over, in the mire," a pivot word: "uki" means "mud" and "gloomy."
Third line, "ouru ashi no," means "of the reeds that grow," a hypermetric line of six syllables. From the reeds' short joints it leads to "hakanaki" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "hakanaki yo o ba," is a pivot word: "yo" means the "joints" of the reed and the "bond" between lovers. It layers short joints with a fleeting bond.
Final line, "ikaga tanomamu," means "how could I rely on it," a rhetorical question, with "mu" a conjectural auxiliary.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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