Waka no ura ni ie no kaze koso nakeredomo nami fuku iro wa tsuki ni miekeri - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

和歌の浦に家の風こそなけれども
波吹く色は月に見えけり

Roma-ji: Waka no ura ni ie no kaze koso nakeredomo nami fuku iro wa tsuki ni miekeri
English Translation: At Waka Bay,
though I have no wind that blows
from a poet's house,
the hue of waves the wind stirs
is visible in the moon.
Meaning: Though at Waka Bay I have no wind of a family tradition in poetry, the look of the waves the wind stirs is plain to see in the moonlight.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1506

Headnote: "When the courtiers composed poems at the Bureau of Poetry on the night of the fifteenth of the eighth month."
This is the eighth poem of the sequence on the moon. The poet says that though he has no "family wind," no inherited tradition of poetry, at Waka Bay, the look of the waves stirred by the wind shows in the moonlight. According to the headnote, it was composed when the courtiers composed poems at the Bureau of Poetry on the night of the fifteenth of the eighth month.
The author, "Norimitsu, Minister of Popular Affairs," was the son of Fujiwara no Norikane. He served as a close retainer of Retired Emperor Go-Toba and rose to Minister of Popular Affairs.
The Bureau of Poetry was an office Retired Emperor Go-Toba set up at his palace in Kennin 1 (1201), where the compilation of the Shin Kokinshū was carried out. Waka Bay is a famous place in Kii, in present-day Wakayama City, sung by virtue of its name as a symbol of the way of poetry.

The first line, "Waka no ura ni," presents the famous Waka Bay and stands also for the way of poetry. It is a fitting opening for poetry composed at the Bureau of Poetry.
In the second line, "ie no kaze koso," "ie no kaze," the family wind, means an art or tradition handed down in a family, here the tradition of a poetic house. It is overlaid with the wind blowing on the bay.
The third line, "nakeredomo," adds the concessive "domo" to "nakere," the perfective form responding to the particle "koso," meaning "though there is none." He humbly says he is not from a house of poets.
The fourth line, "nami fuku iro wa," refers to the look of the wind stirring the waves. Taking up "kaze" in the second line, it returns to the scene of the bay.
The last line, "tsuki ni miekeri," closes with "keri," the exclamation of realization. In the light of the harvest moon of the fifteenth night of the eighth month, the scene at Waka Bay shows clearly, conveying his joy at being summoned to the Bureau of Poetry.
Author: Fujiwara no Norimitsu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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