Nishi no umi tatsu shiranami no ue ni shite nani sugusuran kari no kono yo o - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

西の海立つ白波の上にして
何過ぐすらん仮のこの世を

Roma-ji: Nishi no umi tatsu shiranami no ue ni shite nani sugusuran kari no kono yo o
English Translation: On the western sea,
upon the white waves rising,
there it is you stay—
why do you pass your days so,
through this world of borrowed time?
Meaning: Upon the white waves rising on the western sea—why do you spend your days there, in this fleeting, borrowed world?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1864

Headnote: "It is said this oracle was delivered when, in the reign of Empress Shōtoku, Wake no Kiyomaro was sent to the Usa Shrine."
This is the thirteenth poem in the sequence of poems composed by the gods, and the last of that sequence. Upon the white waves rising on the western sea, it asks, why do you spend your days in this fleeting world? According to the left note, the god delivered it as an oracle when, in the reign of Empress Shōtoku, Wake no Kiyomaro was sent to the Usa Shrine. Likening life to the unmoored surface of the waves, it shows the transience of this world.
The poem has no headnote; a left note follows it instead. In this text the left note is placed under the number of the next poem, run together with that poem's headnote, but its first part belongs to this poem in content, so it is cited here as the headnote.
No author is named in the original. According to the left note, the poem is regarded as the utterance of the deity of Usa. The Usa Hachiman Shrine, in Buzen Province (present-day Usa, Ōita Prefecture), is the head shrine of the god Hachiman.
Empress Shōtoku was a reigning empress of the Nara period. Wake no Kiyomaro was an official of the late Nara and early Heian periods, known for going to the Usa Hachiman Shrine as the sovereign's envoy and bringing the god's oracle back to the capital.

The first line, "nishi no umi," means "the western sea," answering the Usa Shrine's place by the sea to the west of the capital. Since the Iwashimizu Deity of the preceding poem was brought from Usa, the Hachiman poems here trace their way back to the head shrine at Usa.
The second line, "tatsu shiranami no," means "of the white waves rising on the sea."
The third line, "ue ni shite," means "being upon the white waves"; "ni shite" marks the place. The surface of the waves, with nothing to hold to, shows the instability of this world.
The fourth line, "nani sugusuran," means "why do you pass your days?" The conjectural "ran" frames a question. It has the same "nani ... ran" form as "nani uramuran," the last line of poem 1860 of this book.
The last line, "kari no kono yo o," means "this world, a temporary lodging." Placing the object of "sugusu" in the fourth line at the very end, the inversion drives home the world's transience. With this poem the sequence of divine poems ends, and the poems from the banquet celebrating the lectures on the Nihongi follow.
Author: Usa Hachiman Deity (per the left note)
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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