Waga sode wa shiohi ni mienu oki no ishi no hito koso shirane kawaku ma zo naki - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

我が袖は潮干に見えぬ沖の石の
人こそ知らね乾く間ぞなき

Roma-ji: Waga sode wa shiohi ni mienu oki no ishi no hito koso shirane kawaku ma zo naki
English Translation: As for my sleeves,
like a stone far out at sea
that no ebb tide shows,
though no one knows, never once
is there a moment they are dry
Meaning: My sleeves are like a rock far out at sea that never shows even at low tide: no one knows it, but they never have a moment to dry.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 760

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Love conveyed through a stone'"
Composed on the topic "Love conveyed through a stone." My sleeve, she says, is like a stone far offshore that no ebb tide reveals; no one knows, but it never has a moment to dry. Likening her sleeve, soaked with secret tears of love, to the offshore stone that stays submerged even when the tide goes out, she expresses the pain of a love that must be hidden.
The author, "Nijōin no Sanuki," was the daughter of Minamoto no Yorimasa. She served Emperor Nijō and later Gishūmon'in Ninshi, consort of Emperor Go-Toba. Because of this poem she was called "Sanuki of the Stone Offshore."
This celebrated poem is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Poem 754 of this book, by her father Minamoto no Yorimasa, opens with "waga sode no" and likewise gives the sleeve to the ebb and flow of the tide. Where 754 says that a bay with tides would have times when no tears came, this poem likens the sleeve to an offshore stone that even the ebb does not reveal, corresponding to it in singing of sleeves that never dry.

First line, "waga sode wa": "as for my sleeves." Like "waga sode no" in the first line of 754 of this book, it gives one's sleeve to the sea.
Second line, "shiohi ni mienu": "that cannot be seen even at low tide." It corresponds to "shio no michihiru" in the second line of 754.
Third line, "oki no ishi no": "like a stone out at sea," the first three lines forming a figure that leads into the fourth and fifth lines. It has six syllables, one too many.
Fourth line, "hito koso shirane": "koso" is an emphatic particle and "ne" the perfective form of the negative "zu," binding together, "though no one knows," leading adversatively into the last line.
Fifth line, "kawaku ma zo naki": "zo" is an emphatic particle binding with the attributive "naki," "there is no moment to dry."
Author: Nijoin no Sanuki
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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