Ama no karu mirume o nami ni magaetsutsu Nagusa no hama o tazunewabinuru - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

海人の刈るみるめをなみにまがへつつ
なぐさの浜を尋ねわびぬる

Roma-ji: Ama no karu mirume o nami ni magaetsutsu Nagusa no hama o tazunewabinuru
English Translation: What the divers reap,
the seaweed, I pass off as waves:
no sight of you at all,
and I have wearied of the search
along the shore of solace
Meaning: Passing off the divers' seaweed as mere waves, with no sight of you and no name to speak, I have wearied of seeking along the shore of solace.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 1078

Headnote: "On the sense of 'Love with the Name Concealed.'"
This is the first poem of a sequence on love sung through seaweed. Passing off the seaweed the divers reap as waves, with no sight of the beloved, the poet has wearied of seeking along the shore of Nagusa. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Love with the Name Concealed."
The author, "Master of the Empress Dowager's Household Shunzei," is Fujiwara no Shunzei. A son of the Provisional Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Toshitada, he rose to Master of the Empress Dowager's Household. He compiled the Senzai Wakashū and was the father of Fujiwara no Teika.
"Love with the Name Concealed" is a topic meaning a love that keeps the beloved's name hidden.

The first line, "ama no karu," means "which the divers reap."
In the second line, "mirume" pivots between "mirume," a seaweed, and "miru me," the chance to see the beloved, while "nami" pivots between waves and the absence of a thing, the same wordplay as in the preceding poem's fourth line.
The third line, "magaetsutsu," means "making it hard to tell apart." It is the same word as "kumo ni magaetsutsu" in 1008, Tsurayuki's poem, and here it answers the topic's concealing of a name.
In the fourth line, "Nagusa" pivots between the poetic place Nagusa in Kii and "nagusamu," to find comfort.
The last line, "tazunewabinuru," means "I have wearied of seeking." Seeking the shore for comfort and finding none, the poem sings a love that cannot meet and cannot name, entirely through the scene of the shore.
Author: Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Naniwabito ika naru e ni ka kuchihaten au koto nami ni mi o tsukushitsutsu
Next Poem: Au made no mirume karubeki kata zo naki mada naminarenu iso no amabito