涙川袖の井堰も朽ち果てて
淀むかたなき恋もするかな
淀むかたなき恋もするかな
- Roma-ji
-
Namidagawa sode no iseki mo kuchihatete yodomu kata naki koi mo suru kana
- English Translation
-
On the river of tears
even the weir of my sleeve
has rotted away,
and with nowhere to linger
on runs this love of mine
- Meaning
- Even the weir my sleeve made against the river of tears has rotted away, and I am caught in a love that flows on with nowhere to pause.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Love Poems I 377
The weir of the sleeve that held back the river of tears has rotted away entirely, and the poet is in a love that flows on with nowhere to pause. Carrying the conceit of the river of tears and its weir further, the poem shows a love whose force cannot be checked.
Some manuscripts name Uemon no Suke of the Empress's Household as the author and mark it 'topic unknown'.
Poems 375 through 377 in this book form a run on the river of tears. Poem 375 likens the sleeve to a weir, poem 376 finds the bank of discretion unable to hold back the tears, and poem 377 sings of the sleeve's weir rotted away, so that the arrangement shows the tears overflowing step by step.
First line, 'namidagawa', means the river of tears. It is the same word as the third line of the preceding poem, 376.
Second line, 'sode no iseki mo', means even the weir made by the sleeve, taking up the final line 'iseki naruramu' of poem 375 in this book.
Third line, 'kuchihatete', means having rotted away entirely, showing the sleeve worn by endless tears.
Fourth line, 'yodomu kata naki', means with no place to pool and linger, yodomu, to pool, being a word related to the river of tears in the first line.
Final line, 'koi mo suru kana', means such a love I have, with the exclamatory particle kana.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Nagarete no na ni zo tachinuru namidagawa hitome tsutsumi o sekishi aeneba
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Kaku to dani mada iwashiro no musubimatsu musubohoretaru waga kokoro kana