Morasabaya shinobihatsu beki namida ka wa sode no shigarami kaku to bakari mo - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

漏らさばや忍び果つべき涙かは
袖のしがらみかくとばかりも

Roma-ji: Morasabaya shinobihatsu beki namida ka wa sode no shigarami kaku to bakari mo
English Translation: How I long to tell!
Are these tears that can be hid
until the very end?
At least let me say "it's so"
of the weir my sleeves have become
Meaning: How I long to let it out. Are these tears I could hide to the very end? Never. If only I could tell her this much: that my sleeves, like a weir, can no longer hold them back.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 680

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
I long to let it out, he says; are these tears I can hide to the end? At least let me say "it is so" of the weir of my sleeves. Likening his sleeves to a weir that dams a river, yet unable to stop the flood of tears, he wishes to tell her at least a word of a love he can no longer keep hidden. The last line in the text reads "kaku to bakari mo," which does not match "kaku to bakari wa" in the line of kana readings; the text is followed here.
The author, "Minamoto no Arifusa," was a poet of the end of the Heian period. His personal collection is the Arifusa Shū.
Like "sekiwabite morasu kokoro" in 654 of this book, it sings of a love that can no longer be dammed and spills out.

First line, "morasabaya": "baya" is a final particle of one's own wish, "how I long to let it out." The poem pauses here and stands in inverted order with the last line. Like "morasu kokoro no" in the fourth line of 654, it sings of letting love out.
Second line, "shinobihatsu beki": "hatsu" means to see something through, and "beki" is the attributive of the potential "beshi," "that I could hide to the end."
Third line, "namida ka wa": "ka wa" is rhetorical, "are these such tears? Surely not." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "sode no shigarami": "shigarami" is a weir that dams a river, likening the sleeves that hold back tears.
Fifth line, "kaku to bakari mo": "at least that it is so," returning to "morasabaya" in the first line.
Author: Minamoto no Arifusa
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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