Shiranami no yosuru nagisa ni yo o tsukusu ama no ko nareba yado mo sadamezu - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

白波の寄する渚に世をつくす
海人の子なれば宿も定めず

Roma-ji: Shiranami no yosuru nagisa ni yo o tsukusu ama no ko nareba yado mo sadamezu
English Translation: On the shore where break
the white waves, I spend my days
until life is done;
since I am a fisher's child,
I have no settled home.
Meaning: I am a fisher's child who lives out her life on the shore where white waves break, and so I have no fixed dwelling.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1703

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the second of the poems on fisherfolk. As a fisher's child who lives out her life on the shore where white waves break, she has no fixed dwelling. The speaker calls herself a fisher's child and tells of a life lived without a settled home.
The author, as in the preceding poem, is "Anonymous," and the name has not come down.
In the Wakan Rōeishū this poem is placed in the section on courtesans.

The first line, "shiranami no," is the white waves breaking on the shore. The scene moves from the windy lake of the preceding poem to a beach washed by white waves.
The second line, "yosuru nagisa ni," is the water's edge where the waves come in.
The third line, "yo o tsukusu," means "to live out one's life."
In the fourth line, "ama no ko nareba," "nareba" is the realis form of the copula "nari" with "ba," giving the cause, "since I am a fisher's child." It takes up the "fishers at their lines" of the preceding poem.
The last line, "yado mo sadamezu," means "having no fixed dwelling." Closing firmly with the negative "zu," it states plainly a life without anywhere to rest.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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