Shibashi koso hitome tsutsumi ni sekarekere hate wa namida ya Narutaki no kawa

しばしこそ人目つつみにせかれけれ
果ては涙やなるたきの川

Roma-ji: Shibashi koso hitome tsutsumi ni sekarekere hate wa namida ya Narutaki no kawa
English Translation: For a while, indeed,
by the dam of people's eyes
they were held in check,
but in the end will my tears
become the Roaring Falls stream?
Meaning: For a while my tears were held back by the dam of others' eyes, but in the end will they turn into the roaring river of Narutaki?
Commentary: Love Poems 662

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love"
For a while the poet held back his tears with a dam of concern for others' eyes, but in the end, he wonders, will those tears become like the Narutaki River, flowing with a roar, and break out? Tsutsumi joins wrapping away with an embankment, and narutaki joins naru, to become, with the place name Narutaki, the Roaring Falls, so that the tears are pictured as a river breaking over its banks.
Taking up the river of tears of the preceding poem, this one too likens tears to a river, singing on to the moment when tears long hidden from others at last burst forth.

First line, “shibashi koso”: only for a while; the binding particle koso answers the perfective kere in the third line.
Second line, “hitome tsutsumi ni”: tsutsumi is a pivot word joining wrapping away from others' eyes with the embankment of a river.
Third line, “sekarekere”: seku is to dam a stream; closing in the perfective form required by koso, which carries a concessive sense into the lower verse. The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “hate wa namida ya”: in the end, my tears; the particle ya marks a question.
Fifth line, “Narutaki no kawa”: naru is a pivot word joining the tears becoming a river with the naru, roaring, of Narutaki, a place in Yamashiro; ending on a noun.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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