Tazunemiru tsuraki kokoro no oku no umi yo shiohi no kata no iu kai mo nashi - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

尋ね見るつらき心のおくの海よ
潮干の潟のいふかひもなし

Roma-ji: Tazunemiru tsuraki kokoro no oku no umi yo shiohi no kata no iu kai mo nashi
English Translation: O distant far sea
at the depths of your cold heart
that I seek to know:
on your tidal flats at ebb
no shells, no use in pleading.
Meaning: The cold heart I seek to fathom is as deep and far as the distant sea; like the flats at low tide with no shells to be found, there is no use in anything I say.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1332

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "For the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds."
This is the third poem of the sequence on love sung through tear-wet sleeves and winter imagery. The depths of the cold heart I seek to know are a far sea, the speaker says; as the tidal flats at ebb hold no shells, there is no use in anything I say. Continuing from the preceding poem, it was submitted to the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds.
The author, "Teika, Lord of the Court," is Fujiwara no Teika. A son of Fujiwara no Shunzei, he was one of the compilers of the Shinkokinshū and later compiled the Shinchokusenshū on his own.

The first line, "tazunemiru," means "seeking to see and know." It speaks of trying to probe the other's inner heart.
The second line, "tsuraki kokoro no," means "of the cold heart."
The third line, "oku no umi yo," has six syllables, one more than the norm, and is an address after which the poem breaks. "Oku" is a pivot word meaning both the "depths" of the heart and the "distant sea." The other's heart, unfathomable however deeply sought, is likened to a far-off sea.
The fourth line, "shiohi no kata no," means "of the flats at low tide." Following the plovers and waves of the preceding poem, it presents a scene of the shore.
In the last line, "iu kai mo nashi," "kai" is a pivot word meaning both "shell" on the flats and "use" in speaking. The tidal flats, bare of shells at ebb, are overlaid with a cold heart on which all words are wasted.
Author: Fujiwara no Teika
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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