Shiranami ni Tamayorihime no koshi koto wa nagisa ya tsui ni tomari nariken - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

白波に玉依姫の来しことは
渚やつひに泊りなりけん

Roma-ji: Shiranami ni Tamayorihime no koshi koto wa nagisa ya tsui ni tomari nariken
English Translation: Upon the white waves
Tamayorihime came to us—
was it that this shore
was at last the harbor where
her long voyage came to rest?
Meaning: Was it because this shore was to be her final harbor that Tamayorihime came riding in upon the white waves?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1865

Headnote: "At the banquet celebrating the completion of the Nihongi lectures in Engi 6, on Kamu-yamato-iwarebiko, the Emperor."
This is the first poem in the sequence composed at the banquet celebrating the completion of the lectures on the Nihongi. It wonders whether Tamayorihime came riding the white waves because this shore was to be her final harbor. According to the headnote, it was composed at the Nihongi banquet of Engi 6 (906) on the topic of Kamu-yamato-iwarebiko, the Emperor. The arrival of a goddess of myth is likened to a ship coming into port.
In this text, the left note of the preceding poem is run together in front of this headnote. The headnote also writes the name as "Kamu-yamato-iwa-jaku-yo-biko," but the character "jaku" appears to be superfluous, and the usual form Kamu-yamato-iwarebiko is adopted here.
The author, Ōe no Chifuru, was a Confucian scholar of the early Heian period and a son of Ōe no Otondo.
The Nihongi banquets were held at court after the completion of lectures on the Nihon Shoki; poems were composed on gods and figures appearing in the chronicle as topics.
Kamu-yamato-iwarebiko is Emperor Jinmu, and Tamayorihime, daughter of the sea god, was his mother. The poem is about Tamayorihime, and a note in some manuscripts gives her as the actual topic.
The fourth line in the main text reads "nagisa ya tsui ni," which does not match "nagisa ya tsui no" in the reading line. The main text is followed here.

The first line, "shiranami ni," means "riding the white waves," telling how Tamayorihime crossed the sea from beyond. It shares "shiranami" with "tatsu shiranami no" in the preceding poem, linking the sequence of divine poems to the banquet sequence through a seascape.
The second line, "Tamayorihime no," names the daughter of the sea god who became the mother of Emperor Jinmu.
The third line, "koshi koto wa," means "that she came." The past auxiliary "ki" in its attributive form "shi" tells it as an event of the age of the gods.
The fourth line, "nagisa ya tsui ni," means "the shore, at last." The particle "ya" raises a question closed in the last line. Ugayafukiaezu, who became Tamayorihime's husband, is written in the Nihon Shoki as Hiko-nagisa-take-ugayafukiaezu, a name containing "nagisa," "shore." The word "nagisa" answers that name.
The last line, "tomari nariken," means "was it the harbor?" The "ya" is closed by "ken," the attributive of the past conjectural auxiliary, in kakari-musubi. "Tomari" is a harbor where ships put in, and the poem ends on a word of sea travel suggested by the white waves and the shore.
Author: Ōe no Chifuru
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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