Ne o nakeba sode wa kuchite mo usenu meri nao uki koto zo tsukisezarikeru - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

音を泣けば袖は朽ちても失せぬめり
なほ憂きことぞ尽きせざりける

Roma-ji: Ne o nakeba sode wa kuchite mo usenu meri nao uki koto zo tsukisezarikeru
English Translation: Since I weep aloud,
my sleeves have rotted through and
seem to be no more;
yet still my sorrows, I find,
have never come to an end
Meaning: Because I weep aloud, my sleeves seem to have rotted away and vanished; and yet, I find, my sorrows have never come to an end.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 905

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Because I weep aloud, she says, my sleeves seem to have rotted away, yet still my sorrows have not run out. Her sleeves, soaked with endless tears, have rotted to nothing, but her grief knows no end; by contrasting the vanishing of the sleeves, a tangible thing, with the inexhaustible sorrow of the heart, she expresses a grief without limit.
The author, "Izumi Shikibu," was the daughter of Ōe no Masamune, Governor of Echizen. She became the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi, and bore him Koshikibu no Naishi, and later had love affairs with Prince Tametaka and Prince Atsumichi. She served Jōtōmon'in Shōshi and is known for her passionate love poems. A poem of hers is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
The three poems from here to 907 are all by Izumi Shikibu. This poem's "ne o nakeba" and the next poem's "ne ni nakite" set side by side two poems on weeping aloud.

First line, "ne o nakeba": "ne o naku" means to weep aloud, and the perfective with "ba" gives a fixed condition, "since I weep aloud." It answers "ne ni nakite koso" in the fourth line of the next poem, 906.
Second line, "sode wa kuchite mo": "though my sleeves, soaked with tears, rot away." Poem 940 of this book, "osauru sode mo kuchihatete," also speaks of sleeves rotting with tears.
Third line, "usenu meri": "nu" is the perfective and "meri" an auxiliary of inference, "they seem to have vanished." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "nao uki koto zo": "nao" means "still, even so." The emphatic "zo" closes with the attributive "keru" in the last line. The contrast emerges: the sleeves vanish, but the sorrow does not.
Fifth line, "tsukisezarikeru": "tsukise" is the irrealis of "tsukisu," "to run out," "zari" the negative, and "keru" the attributive of "keri," expressing realization, closing the "zo" of the fourth line, "it has never come to an end."
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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