Taki no mizu kaerite sumaba Inariyama nanuka noboreru shirushi to omowan - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

滝の水かへりてすまば稲荷山
七日登れるしるしと思はん

Roma-ji: Taki no mizu kaerite sumaba Inariyama nanuka noboreru shirushi to omowan
English Translation: If the waterfall
should turn back and run clear,
then on Inari Hill,
my seven days of climbing
I will think have borne their fruit.
Meaning: If the waterfall should flow back and run clear, if he should come back and live with me again, I will take it as the blessing of my seven days' climb up Inari Hill.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Love Poems 1268

Headnote: "Written in a woman's hand on a small shrine at Inari"
The poet says that if the waterfall should flow back and run clear, she will take it as the blessing of seven days' climbing on Inari Hill. The headnote shows it was found written in a woman's hand on a small shrine at Inari. Pivoting on "kaeri," to flow back and to return, and on "suma," to run clear and to live, she stakes an almost impossible wish: that if the one who left should come back and live with her again, she will take it as the blessing of her seven-day pilgrimage. Like the preceding poem, 1267, it is a poem praying to the Inari god for love.

First line, "taki no mizu," means "the water of the falls," which ordinarily runs only downward.
Second line, "kaerite sumaba," is a pivot word: "kaeri" means the water "flowing back" and a person "coming back," and "suma" means the water "running clear" and a person "living" there. "Ba" after the irrealis form expresses supposition. It shares the same pivot of clearing and living with the fourth lines of 1253 and 1254 in this book.
Third line, "Inariyama," is Inari Hill in Yamashiro, where the shrines of the Inari god stand. It shares Inari with the second line of the preceding poem, 1267, "Inari no kami mo."
Fourth line, "nanuka noboreru," means "climbing for seven days," speaking of seven days of pilgrimage and prayer up Inari Hill.
Final line, "shirushi to omowan," means "I will take it as the blessing," with "n" an auxiliary of intention.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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