Omoiamari hito ni towabaya Minasegawa musubanu mizu ni sode wa nuru ya to - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

思ひ余り人に問はばや水無瀬川
むすばぬ水に袖は濡るやと

Roma-ji: Omoiamari hito ni towabaya Minasegawa musubanu mizu ni sode wa nuru ya to
English Translation: Love overflowing,
I would ask of someone this:
in Minase River,
in water never cupped by hand,
can sleeves become so wet?
Meaning: My love overflows, and I would ask someone: in the River Minase, whose very name says it has no water, can sleeves grow wet in water one has never even scooped up?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 704

Headnote: "Composed on the heart of love when hundred-poem sequences were presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Composed on the heart of love when hundred-poem sequences were presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa; the sequences are the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequences. Love overflowing, he says, I would ask someone whether sleeves can grow wet in the Minase River, in water never scooped by hand. Drawing on the "no water" hidden in the name Minase, he poses as a question the wonder that, though he has scooped no water, that is, though no vow has been bound, his sleeves are soaked with the tears of love, expressing the pain of a love not yet fulfilled.
The author, "Major Counselor Kinzane," is Fujiwara no Kinzane. The son of Provisional Major Counselor Fujiwara no Sanesue, he was a maternal uncle of Emperor Horikawa and rose to Provisional Major Counselor. He was the father of Fujiwara no Saneyoshi, the Tokudaiji Minister of the Left, and of Taikenmon'in Tamako, consort of Emperor Toba.
This poem opens the second book of love. Poem 641 at the head of Book Eleven is also from the Horikawa sequences, so that both the first and second books of love begin with love poems from the Horikawa sequences. In this book, poems on sleeves wet with tears follow at 713, 717 and 718, so that this opening question echoes through the arrangement.

First line, "omoiamari": "love overflowing," unable to be contained within the heart.
Second line, "hito ni towabaya": "baya" is a final particle of one's own wish, "I would ask someone." The poem pauses here and stands in inverted order with the lines that follow.
Third line, "Minasegawa": a famed river in Settsu whose name echoes "mizu nashi," "without water," leading as a waterless river into "mizu" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "musubanu mizu ni": "musubu" pivots between scooping water in the hands and binding a vow of love. It speaks of water never scooped, that is, a love never sealed.
Fifth line, "sode wa nuru ya to": "ya" is the interrogative particle, "whether sleeves grow wet," returning to "towabaya" in the second line. Like "sode wa nururu" in the fourth line of 713 of this book, it sings of sleeves wet with the tears of love.
Author: Fujiwara no Kinzane
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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