Mizu no ue ni ukine o shite zo omoishiru kakareba oshi mo naku ni zo arikeru - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

水の上にうきねをしてぞ思ひ知る
かかれば鴛も鳴くにぞありける

Roma-ji: Mizu no ue ni ukine o shite zo omoishiru kakareba oshi mo naku ni zo arikeru
English Translation: Sleeping afloat
upon the face of the water,
now I understand:
it is because it is like this
that the mandarin ducks cry
Meaning: Only by sleeping afloat on the water, in sorrow, have I come to understand: it is because it is like this that even the mandarin ducks cry.
Commentary: Book Eight Travel Poems 503

Headnote: "Composed after spending the night aboard a boat by the sea"
Composed after spending the night aboard a boat by the shore. Only by sleeping afloat on the water have I come to understand, the poet says: it is because it is so hard that the mandarin ducks cry. Experiencing for herself the floating sleep of water birds, unable to sleep as the waves rock her, she comes to grasp the sadness in the cries of the ducks on the water.
The author, "Izumi Shikibu," was the daughter of Ōe no Masamune, Governor of Echizen. She was called by this name because she became the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi. She served Shōshi, consort of Emperor Ichijō, and is known for passionate love poems. She is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the Middle Ages and has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "mizu no ue ni": "on the surface of the water," referring to the night spent on the boat.
Second line, "ukine o shite zo": "ukine" means both floating sleep on the water and sleep in sorrow. The emphatic "zo" closes with the attributive "omoishiru" in the third line.
Third line, "omoishiru": "to understand deeply." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "kakareba oshi mo": "kakareba" means "because it is like this." "Oshi" is the mandarin duck, sung of as a bird that sleeps afloat in pairs.
Fifth line, "naku ni zo arikeru": "zo" closes with "keru," the attributive of the exclamatory "keri," expressing the realization that the ducks cry because of this very hardship.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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