Me no mae ni kawaru kokoro o namidagawa nagarete ya tomo omoikeru kana - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

目の前に変はる心を涙川
流れてやとも思ひけるかな

Roma-ji: Me no mae ni kawaru kokoro o namidagawa nagarete ya tomo omoikeru kana
English Translation: Before my very eyes
your heart has changed, and yet I,
by my river of tears,
imagined it might flow on
for long years still to come
Meaning: Your heart changed before my very eyes, yet I had thought that, like the river of my tears, our love might flow on for years to come.
Commentary: Book Eight Love Poems II 471

Though the beloved's heart changed before her very eyes, the poet had thought their bond might flow on for years like a river of tears. Facing a lover whose heart has turned, she laments her own mistake in believing in a lasting bond.
Namidagawa, the river of tears, is also sung in poems 359, 376 and 377 of Book Seven, and the image of tears as a river recurs through the love books.

First line, 'me no mae ni', means before my eyes.
Second line, 'kawaru kokoro o', means a heart that changes, the o carrying a concessive sense.
Third line, 'namidagawa', means a river of tears, a word related to flowing in the fourth line.
Fourth line, 'nagarete ya tomo', means that it might flow on for long, nagarete carrying the sense of continuing on through time.
Final line, 'omoikeru kana', means so I had thought, the attributive of the exclamatory keri followed by kana.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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