Nukeba chiru nukaneba midaru ashihiki no yama yori otsuru taki no shiratama - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

抜けば散る抜かねば乱るあしひきの
山より落つる滝の白玉

Roma-ji: Nukeba chiru nukaneba midaru ashihiki no yama yori otsuru taki no shiratama
English Translation: String them and they scatter,
leave them be and they fly loose,
the white jewels that
from the foot-wearying hills
tumble with the waterfall
Meaning: Try to string them and they scatter; leave them unstrung and they fly every which way: the white jewels of the waterfall tumbling from the mountain.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1036

Headnote: "Composed on a folding screen, on a scene of a falling waterfall"
This screen poem was composed on a scene of a falling waterfall painted on a folding screen. String them and they scatter, leave them and they fly loose, the white jewels of the falls dropping from the mountain, he says. Seeing the spray of the falls as white jewels, he wittily depicts the beauty of spray that cannot be caught: try to thread it and it scatters, leave it and it flies in disarray.
The author, "Fujiwara no Nagatō," was a son of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu. A younger brother of the Mother of Michitsuna, he served Retired Emperor Kazan. He is said to have been Nōin's teacher in poetry. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the Middle Ages.
The conceit of seeing the spray of a waterfall as white jewels is found in such poems as Ariwara no Narihira's in the Kokin Wakashū, "nukimidaru hito koso arurashi shiratama no ma naku mo chiru ka sode no sebaki ni." Where the preceding poem, 1035, sings of the sound of the falls, this one sings of the appearance of their spray.

First line, "nukeba chiru": "nuku" means to thread jewels on a string, "thread them and they scatter."
Second line, "nukaneba midaru": "leave them unthreaded and they fly loose," forming a parallel with the first line.
Third line, "ashihiki no": a pillow word modifying "mountain."
Fourth line, "yama yori otsuru": "falling from the mountain."
Fifth line, "taki no shiratama": the spray of the falls seen as white jewels, ending in a noun. The whole upper verse is inverted to lead into the fifth line.
Author: Fujiwara no Nagato
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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