Kono se ni mo shizumu to kiku wa namidagawa nagareshi yori mo nao masarikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

この瀬にも沈むと聞くは涙川
流れしよりもなほまさりけり

Roma-ji: Kono se ni mo shizumu to kiku wa namidagawa nagareshi yori mo nao masarikeri
English Translation: In these shallows too
I hear that I must sink, and
the river of tears
runs higher than it did
when first I was swept away
Meaning: Hearing that this time too I am left to sink, the river of my tears swells higher still than when I was first carried off in exile.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1118

Headnote: "Sent to someone in the capital when, while I was in a distant province, it was reported that others in the same situation had been pardoned and were going up to the capital, and I heard that I had been left out"
While he was in exile in a distant province, word came that others who had been punished like him were pardoned and returning to the capital, but he heard that he had been left out, and he sent this poem to someone in the capital. The river of tears, hearing that in these shallows too I must sink, runs higher than when I was swept away, he says. Deeper even than his tears when he was first exiled is the grief of learning that he alone has been left behind while those exiled with him are pardoned, and he laments it by likening it to the rising of a river of tears.
The author, "Former Left Military Guards Commander Korekata," is Fujiwara no Korekata. A son of Fujiwara no Akiyori, he wielded power as a close adviser to Emperor Nijō, but in Eiryaku 1 (1160) he was exiled to Nagato Province; he was later pardoned and returned to the capital.
It shares "se" and tears with the preceding poem, 1117. And 1120 of this book sings of the joy of returning to the capital after a pardon, in contrast to this poem's lament at being passed over. The text gives the second line as "shizumu to kiku wa," which does not agree with "shizumu to kikeba" in the reading line; here the text is followed.

First line, "kono se ni mo": "se" means an occasion, "on this occasion of pardon too." It shares "se" with "ukise ni mo" in the first line of the preceding poem, 1117.
Second line, "shizumu to kiku wa": "hearing that I am left to sink," passed over for pardon. "Sink" is an associated word of the shallows and the river of tears. It shares the image of misfortune as sinking in a river with "soko ni shizumishi" in the second line of 1081 of this book.
Third line, "namidagawa": "river of tears," likening flowing tears to a river. It shares the river of tears with "namida no kawa ni" in the second line of 1063 of this book.
Fourth line, "nagareshi yori mo": "nagaru" overlaps being swept into exile and the flowing of a river, "than when I was swept away."
Fifth line, "nao masarikeri": "masaru" means for a river's waters to rise, a figure for grief growing deeper. "Keri" is exclamatory.
Author: Fujiwara no Korekata
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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