Mononofu no yaso ujigawa no ajirogi ni isayou nami no yukue shirazu mo - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

もののふの八十うぢ川の網代木に
いさよふ波のゆくへ知らずも

Roma-ji: Mononofu no yaso ujigawa no ajirogi ni isayou nami no yukue shirazu mo
English Translation: Of the warrior clans
many, Uji River's stream—
at the wicker weirs
the waves linger, hesitate,
whither bound, no one can know.
Meaning: The waves that linger, hesitating, at the fishing weirs of the Uji River—no one can tell where they will go.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1650

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence lamenting one's lot by way of rivers. The waves lingering at the fishing weirs of the Uji River go whither no one knows. The headnote gives the topic as unknown and records nothing of the circumstances.
The author, "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A poet who served in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, he was revered by later ages as the Saint of Poetry.
It appears in Book Three of the Man'yōshū as a poem Hitomaro composed on the bank of the Uji River on his way up from Ōmi Province to the capital.
A fishing weir is a device of woven bamboo or wood set in the shallows of a river to catch fish. The weirs of the Uji River were known for catching young sweetfish in winter.

The first line, "mononofu no," is an introductory phrase leading to "yaso uji," "the many clans," from the many clans that serve the court.
The second line, "yaso ujigawa no," pivots on "uji," both "clans" and the place name Uji. It takes up the stream of the Uji River from the preceding poems.
The third line, "ajirogi ni," means "at the stakes of the fishing weirs."
The fourth line, "isayou nami no," means "of the waves that linger, hesitating," the waves held back by the weirs and unable to go on.
The last line, "yukue shirazu mo," means "no one knows where they go." "Mo" is an exclamatory final particle. Where the three preceding poems sang of the rise and fall of a house's stream, here the uncertainty of all that flows is sung.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Mukashi yori taesenu kawa no sue nareba yodomu bakari o nani nagekuran
Next Poem: Waga yo o ba kyō ka asu ka to matsu kai no namida no taki to izure takaken