Au koto no ima wa katami no me o arami morite nagaremu na koso oshikere - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢ふことの今はかたみの目をあらみ
漏りて流れむ名こそ惜しけれ

Roma-ji: Au koto no ima wa katami no me o arami morite nagaremu na koso oshikere
English Translation: Our meetings are now
hard as a loosely woven
basket's open mesh,
and through it seeps and flows away
my name—that I most regret
Meaning: Meeting is now so hard, and like water through a loosely woven basket, my name seeps out and flows away; that is what I most regret.
Commentary: Book Eight Love Poems II 500

Now that meeting has become hard, the poet regrets that word of their bond seeps out and flows through the world, like water leaking from a loosely woven basket. Layering katami, being hard and a bamboo basket, and me, the mesh of the basket and the eyes of others, the poem laments a rumor that spreads while the lovers cannot meet.
Poems 501 and 502 in this book also begin with au koto and use the sound kata, so poems that pun on the difficulty of meeting follow one another.

First line, 'au koto no', means meeting.
Second line, 'ima wa katami no', is a pivot word in which katami means both because it is hard and a basket woven of bamboo, left in kana.
Third line, 'me o arami', means since the mesh is coarse, a form in which a noun with o and an adjective stem with mi expresses a cause. The mesh of the basket echoes the eyes of others.
Fourth line, 'morite nagaremu', means will seep out and flow away, layering water leaking from the basket with rumor leaking out and spreading.
Final line, 'na koso oshikere', means it is my name I regret, the particle koso answered by oshikere, the perfective form of the adjective oshi.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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