Namidagawa ukine no tori to narinuredo hito ni wa e koso minarezarikere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

涙川うき寝の鳥となりぬれど
人にはえこそみなれざりけれ

Roma-ji: Namidagawa ukine no tori to narinuredo hito ni wa e koso minarezarikere
English Translation: On the River of Tears
I have become a waterbird
that floats in mournful sleep,
yet never can I grow so used
to her as birds to water
Meaning: I have become a waterbird that sleeps afloat on a river of my own tears, sleeping alone in sorrow, and yet, unlike the bird at home on the water, I can never grow familiar with her.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 670

Headnote: "Composed as a love poem"
Composed as a love poem. I have become a bird that sleeps afloat on the River of Tears, he says, yet I can never grow used to her. Likening his tears to a river, he sees himself, sleeping alone in tears, as a waterbird asleep on its surface. The bird grows used to the water, but he cannot grow close to the one he loves, he laments through the double sense of "minare."
The author, "Fujiwara no Kiyosuke Ason," was the son of Fujiwara no Akisuke, Master of the Capital Office of the Left. He carried on the poetic learning of the Rokujō Fujiwara house and wrote poetic treatises such as the Fukuro Zōshi and the Ōgishō. He has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Like "namida no kawa" in 667 of this book, it likens tears to a river.

First line, "namidagawa": a river of tears, likening abundant tears to a river. It is the same conceit as "namida no kawa no" in the second line of 667.
Second line, "ukine no tori to": "ukine" combines "uki-ne," a waterbird sleeping afloat, and "uki-ne," sleeping in sorrow.
Third line, "narinuredo": "nure" is the perfective of the perfective auxiliary "nu," and with "do" it becomes adversative, "though I have become."
Fourth line, "hito ni wa e koso": "e" answers the negative below to express impossibility, and the emphatic "koso" closes with the perfective "kere" in the last line.
Fifth line, "minarezarikere": "minare" combines "mi-nare," a bird growing used to the water, and "mi-nare," growing familiar with a lover. "Kere" closes the "koso" of the fourth line.
Author: Fujiwara no Kiyosuke
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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