Suma no seki yume o tōsanu nami no oto o omoi mo yorade yado o karikeru - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

須磨の関夢を通さぬ波の音を
思ひもよらで宿を借りける

Roma-ji: Suma no seki yume o tōsanu nami no oto o omoi mo yorade yado o karikeru
English Translation: Suma Barrier—
the waves that let no dream pass,
I never thought of
that sound of theirs at all
when I took lodging for the night.
Meaning: At the Suma Barrier, never imagining that the sound of the waves would let no dream pass through, I took lodging for the night.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1600

Headnote: "Composed when I presented a set of fifty poems."
This is the third poem of the sequence on Suma. The poet took lodging without imagining that at the Suma Barrier the sound of the waves would let no dream pass through. According to the headnote, it was composed when he presented a set of fifty poems.
The author, "Saki no Daisōjō Jien," was a son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi and a younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He served four times as Tendai Abbot and wrote the historical treatise Gukanshō.

The first line, "Suma no seki," is the barrier station at Suma in Settsu Province. Taking up "seki fukikoyuru" of the preceding poem, the barrier itself is placed in the first line.
The second line, "yume o tōsanu," means "letting no dream pass." Likened to a barrier that lets no one through, the sound of the waves disturbs sleep and allows no dream to form. "Barrier" and "let pass" are associated words.
The third line, "nami no oto o," takes up the "bay waves of Suma" of the preceding poem and recasts their sound as what keeps one from sleep.
The fourth line, "omoi mo yorade," means "without even imagining." "De" is a negative conjunctive particle.
The last line, "yado o karikeru," means "I took lodging." It ends in "keru," the attributive form of the past auxiliary "keri," leaving as an overtone the regret of a traveler facing a sleepless night.
Author: Jien
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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