Hamachidori fumioku ato no tsumorinaba kai aru ura ni awazarame ya wa - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

浜千鳥ふみおく跡のつもりなば
かひある浦にあはざらめやは

Roma-ji: Hamachidori fumioku ato no tsumorinaba kai aru ura ni awazarame ya wa
English Translation: Should the prints pile high
that the plovers on the beach
leave as they tread,
how could they fail to meet
a shore rich with shells of worth?
Meaning: If the tracks the beach plovers leave behind—your brushstrokes—pile up, how could you fail to come upon a shore with shells, a reward worth the labor?
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1726

Headnote: "In reply to the priest Saikei, who, when he presented his copy of the Senzaishū, wrote on the wrapping paper: 'Grinding ink and dipping my brush, the years have passed, yet I have no words I can call my own to write.'"
This is the first of the poems connected with the copying and compiling of poetry. If the brush tracks left like the prints of beach plovers pile up, how could they fail to come upon a reward, as one comes upon a shore with shells? According to the headnote, it replies to the priest Saikei, who had copied and presented the Senzai Wakashū and wrote on the wrapping that after years with ink and brush he had no words of his own to set down. It praises the labor of copying and encourages him.
The author, "Go-Shirakawa-in," is Emperor Go-Shirakawa. A son of Emperor Toba, he ruled for many years as retired emperor after abdicating. Fond of imayō songs, he compiled the Ryōjin Hishō, and he ordered Fujiwara no Shunzei to compile the Senzai Wakashū.
The headnote in the original reads "御御（御＄）返し," which is taken as a note deleting the doubled "御"; it is rendered here as "reply."

The first line, "hamachidori," is plovers on the beach. Plover tracks were a figure for written characters and handwriting.
In the second line, "fumioku ato no," "fumi" is a pivot word meaning both the plover's treading and "writing." Footprints and brush tracks are laid together in one word.
The third line, "tsumorinaba," means "if they pile up." "Na" is the irrealis form of the perfective "nu," forming a supposition with "ba." It refers to the accumulating labor of copying.
In the fourth line, "kai aru ura ni," "kai" is a pivot word meaning both the shells of the shore and "reward." The "shore" continues from Ōyodo Bay in the preceding poem.
In the last line, "awazarame ya wa," "ya wa" is a rhetorical final particle, meaning "how could you not meet it? You surely will." Answering Saikei's lament, it encourages him that his efforts will be rewarded.
Author: Emperor Go-Shirakawa
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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