Kawabune no noboriwazurau tsunadenawa kurushikute nomi yo o wataru kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

川舟の上りわづらふ綱手縄
くるしくてのみ世をわたるかな

Roma-ji: Kawabune no noboriwazurau tsunadenawa kurushikute nomi yo o wataru kana
English Translation: Like the tow rope drawn
by a river boat that struggles
to make its way upstream,
hand over hand in hardship
I make my way across the world.
Meaning: Like the tow rope hauled hand over hand by a river boat struggling upstream, I cross through this world with nothing but hardship.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1775

Headnote: "When a hundred-poem sequence was composed at the house of the Lay Priest and Former Chancellor."
This is the first of the poems using the flow of rivers to lament one's lot. Like the tow rope hauled hand over hand by a river boat that struggles upstream, he crosses through the world with nothing but hardship. The pain of a life that will not move forward as he wishes is entrusted to the image of a boat being towed. According to the headnote, it belongs to a hundred-poem sequence composed at the house of the Lay Priest and Former Chancellor.
The author, "Minister of Justice Yorisuke," is Fujiwara no Yorisuke. A son of Fujiwara no Tadanori, he rose to Minister of Justice. He excelled at kemari football and is regarded as the founder of a house of that art.
The Lay Priest and Former Chancellor is Kujō Kanezane, at whose house the hundred-poem sequence was held.

The first line, "kawabune no," is a boat traveling on a river. The first three lines form a preface leading to "kurushi."
The second line, "noboriwazurau," means "struggling to go upstream," laid over a life that will not advance as one wishes.
The third line, "tsunadenawa," is the rope for towing a boat from the bank. From "kuru," to haul a rope, it leads to "kurushi" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line, "kurushikute nomi," "kuru" is a pivot word meaning both hauling in the rope and "painful." "Nomi" stresses that there is nothing but pain.
In the last line, "yo o wataru kana," "wataru" is a pivot word meaning both crossing a river and making one's way through the world. "Kana" is exclamatory, closing with a sigh at a hard life. The next poem too uses a river to lament one's lot.
Author: Fujiwara no Yorisuke
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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