Imo ga atari nagaruru kawa no se ni yoraba awa to narite mo kien to zo omou - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

妹があたり流るる川の瀬に寄らば
泡となりても消えんとぞ思ふ

Roma-ji: Imo ga atari nagaruru kawa no se ni yoraba awa to narite mo kien to zo omou
English Translation: If I could draw near
to the shallows of the stream
flowing by her home,
then even as the foam
I would gladly fade away
Meaning: If only I could drift up to the shallows of the river that flows past my love's home, I would gladly vanish there, even as a fleck of foam.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 763

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
If I could come to the shallows of the river flowing by my love's home, he says, I would vanish even as foam. If only he could be near her, he would not mind fading away as a fleeting fleck of foam, a single-minded love that would cast away the self to be by her side.
The author, "Minister of Justice Norikane," is Fujiwara no Norikane. The son of Fujiwara no Yoshikane, he served as Minister of Justice. Known as a poetic scholar, he wrote treatises such as the Waka Dōmōshō.
Taking up the "River of Crossing" in the poems before it, this poem too sings of the "se," the shallows, of a river. Where 762 says there is no ford for meeting in the river of the underworld, this poem wishes to reach the shallows of the river by the beloved's home in this world, so that the river of the next world and the river of this world are set side by side in contrast.

First line, "imo ga atari": "imo" is a man's affectionate word for his beloved, "near where she lives." It has six syllables, one too many.
Second line, "nagaruru kawa no": "of the river that flows."
Third line, "se ni yoraba": "se" is the shallows of a river, and "ba" after the irrealis is suppositional, "if I could draw near to its shallows." Like the "se" of "ause" in 762, it sings of a river's shallows.
Fourth line, "awa to narite mo": "even becoming foam," a figure for what fades away in an instant.
Fifth line, "kien to zo omou": "n" is the volitional "mu" and "zo" an emphatic particle binding with the attributive "omou," "I would fade away."
Author: Fujiwara no Norikane
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Koishinan koto zo hakanaki watarigawa ause ari to wa kikanu mono yue
Next Poem: Hakanashi na kokorozukushi ni toshi o hete itsu tomo shiranu Au no Matsubara