Mizu no ue no hakanaki kazu mo omooezu fukaki kokoro shi soko ni tomareba - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

水の上のはかなき数も思ほえず
深き心し底にとまれば

Roma-ji: Mizu no ue no hakanaki kazu mo omooezu fukaki kokoro shi soko ni tomareba
English Translation: Numbers on the water,
fleeting things of that kind,
I do not think of;
for my deep heart settles
at the bottom, and remains
Meaning: I do not think of anything as fleeting as numbers written on water; for my heart, deep as the water, remains settled at the bottom.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1421

Headnote: "When the Priestess Consort came to the palace, and something, it seems, had happened."
This is the third poem of the sequence on unforgettable longing. He does not think in fleeting terms like numbers written on water, he says, for his deep heart remains at the bottom, singing of his unchanging heart toward the consort. According to the headnote, it was composed when the Priestess Consort came to the palace and something, it seems, had happened.
The author, "Poem of the Tenryaku Era," is Emperor Murakami. A son of Emperor Daigo, he took the throne as the sixty-second sovereign, and his reign was praised as the Tenryaku rule. Tenryaku is the era name of his reign.
Writing numbers on water has been a figure for fleetingness since the Kokinshū poem "Yuku mizu ni / kazu kaku yori mo / hakanaki wa / omowanu hito o / omou narikeri." At the end of the last line the text carries the note "〈朱〉／," which is not part of the poem and has been removed.

The first line, "mizu no ue no," runs to six syllables, one over the count. It refers to numbers written on water, something that vanishes at once.
The second line, "hakanaki kazu mo," means "fleeting numbers, too."
The third line, "omooezu," means "I do not think of." The poem breaks after the third line.
In the fourth line, "fukaki kokoro shi," "shi" is an intensifier. The depth of the water and the depth of the heart are overlaid.
The last line, "soko ni tomareba," means "since it stays at the bottom." Inverted from the third line, it gives afterward the reason for not thinking fleetingly. "Water," "deep," and "bottom" are associated words, and numbers vanishing on the surface and a heart remaining deep at the bottom are shown in a contrast of above and below.
Author: Emperor Murakami
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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