Fune no uchi nami no ue ni zo oinikeru ama no shiwaza mo itoma na no yo ya - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

舟のうち浪の上にぞ老いにける
海人のしわざもいとまなの世や

Roma-ji: Fune no uchi nami no ue ni zo oinikeru ama no shiwaza mo itoma na no yo ya
English Translation: In the boat's shelter,
out upon the waves I have
grown old all these years;
the fisher's labors too, ah,
in a world that grants no rest.
Meaning: In a boat, upon the waves, I have grown old. Even the fisher's labors belong to a world that allows no rest.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1704

Headnote: "For the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds."
This is the third of the poems on fisherfolk. Thinking of fisherfolk who have grown old living out their lives in boats upon the waves, he says that even their labor belongs to a world without rest. Taking up the two preceding poems on fisherfolk, it lays over the figure of the fisher the grief of one who has spent his life without respite.
The author, "Sesshō Daijō Daijin," is Fujiwara no Yoshitsune. The son of Kujō Kanezane, he rose to Regent and Chancellor. He wrote the kana preface to the Shin Kokinshū and was also a fine calligrapher.
The Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds was held by Retired Emperor Go-Toba, who had thirty poets each compose a hundred poems to be matched; it was the largest poetry contest in history.

The first line, "fune no uchi," means "within a boat," first setting out where the fisher spends his days.
The second line, "nami no ue ni zo," pairs with the first to name again the place of the fisher's life. The particle "zo" reaches to the close of the third line.
The third line, "oinikeru," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with "keru," the attributive form of "keri." Following the preceding poem, where a fisher's child lives out her life on the shore, here the fisher is shown grown old upon a boat, and the poem pauses here.
In the fourth line, "ama no shiwaza mo," "shiwaza" means labor or livelihood. "Mo" suggests that the fisher's work too is like all the world's toil.
In the last line, "itoma na no yo ya," "itoma na" is the stem of "itoma nashi," "having no rest." "Ya" is an exclamatory particle, closing the poem with a sigh over a world whose toil passes without pause.
Author: Fujiwara no Yoshitsune
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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