Toshigoto ni namida no kawa ni ukabedomo mi wa nagerarenu mono ni zo arikeru - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

年ごとに涙の川に浮かべども
身は投げられぬ物にぞありける

Roma-ji: Toshigoto ni namida no kawa ni ukabedomo mi wa nagerarenu mono ni zo arikeru
English Translation: Year after year
on a river of my tears
I drift and float,
and yet this body of mine
is a thing I cannot cast away
Meaning: Every year I float upon a river of tears, yet this body of mine, I find, is not something I can cast away.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1063

Headnote: "Sent to Noriyoshi at the time of the appointments, when I lamented that I had been given no post"
At the time of the appointments, lamenting that he had been given no post, he sent this poem to Fujiwara no Noriyoshi. Every year I float on a river of tears, yet this body is something I cannot cast away, he says. Passed over in each year's appointments and weeping tears enough to make a river, he still cannot throw himself into that river, singing of the pain of a man who must go on living while he laments his misfortune.
The author, "Ōe no Kinsuke," was an official of the mid-Heian period, known as the husband of the poet Sagami.
It shares the river of tears with "namidagawa" in the third line of 1118 of this book.

First line, "toshigoto ni": "every year," meaning each year's appointments in which he is passed over.
Second line, "namida no kawa ni": the tears he sheds are enough to make a river. It shares the river of tears with "namidagawa" in the third line of 1118 of this book, both weeping over misfortune.
Third line, "ukabedomo": "though I float," meaning he weeps so much that he floats on that river. The concessive leads into the lower verse.
Fourth line, "mi wa nagerarenu": "re" is the irrealis of the auxiliary of possibility "ru," and "nu" the attributive of the negative "zu," "I cannot cast myself away." "Float" and "cast" are associated words of the river.
Fifth line, "mono ni zo arikeru": "zo" is an emphatic binding particle closing with "keru," the attributive of the exclamatory "keri."
Author: Ōe no Kinsuke
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kakute dani nao aware naru okuyama ni kimi konu yoyo o omoishiranan
Next Poem: Omou koto nakute ya haru o sugusamashi ukiyo hedatsuru kasumi nariseba