Waga sode no namida ya Nio no umi naran kari ni mo hito o mirume nakereba - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

我が袖の涙やにほの海ならん
かりにも人をみるめなければ

Roma-ji: Waga sode no namida ya Nio no umi naran kari ni mo hito o mirume nakereba
English Translation: The tears on my sleeve,
are they the Lake of Grebes, then,
I wonder, a lake—
for not even for a moment
is there seaweed, a chance to see him
Meaning: Are the tears upon my sleeve the Lake of Grebes, I wonder? For there is no seaweed to cut there, no chance, even for a moment, to see the one I love.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 855

Headnote: "Composed as a love poem when presenting hundred-poem sequences to Retired Emperor Sutoku"
This poem was composed as a love poem for the hundred-poem sequences presented to Retired Emperor Sutoku, the so-called Kyūan Hyakushu. Are the tears on my sleeve the Lake of Grebes, she says, since there is no chance even for a moment to see him? Likening the tears that soak her sleeve to a lake, she pivots between "mirume," a kind of seaweed, and "mirume," a chance to see the beloved. Drawing on the fact that seaweed does not grow in the Lake of Grebes, a freshwater lake, she laments with wit that though her tears have become as vast as a lake, there is no chance at all of meeting.
The author, "Jōsaimon'in no Hyōe," was the daughter of Minamoto no Akinaka, Head of the Office of Shinto Worship. She served Taikenmon'in and then her daughter, Jōsaimon'in, Princess Muneko. She is said to have been the younger sister of Taikenmon'in no Horikawa.
The six poems from this one through 860 are all love poems from the Kyūan Hyakushu presented to Retired Emperor Sutoku and form a sequence.

First line, "waga sode no": it shows her own sleeve soaked with tears.
Second line, "namida ya Nio no": "ya" is an interrogative particle that binds with the attributive "naran" in the third line. "Nio no umi," the Lake of Grebes, is Lake Biwa in Ōmi.
Third line, "umi naran": "ran" is an auxiliary of present conjecture, "could it be the Lake of Grebes." It is a hyperbole likening the tears on her sleeve to a lake, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "kari ni mo hito o": "kari" pivots between "cutting" seaweed and "for a moment," meaning "even fleetingly." "Cutting" is an associated word for "mirume."
Fifth line, "mirume nakereba": "mirume" pivots between the seaweed and "a chance to see" the beloved. Since no seaweed grows in a freshwater lake, it expresses that there is no chance to meet.
Author: Jōsaimon'in no Hyōe
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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