Tachinoboru Shioya no kemuri urakaze ni nabiku o kami no kokoro tomogana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

立ち上る塩屋の煙浦風に
なびくを神の心ともがな

Roma-ji: Tachinoboru Shioya no kemuri urakaze ni nabiku o kami no kokoro tomogana
English Translation: Rising to the sky,
the smoke of the salt huts, blown
by the shore wind,
bends—O that I might take it
as the bending of the god's heart.
Meaning: How I wish I could take the smoke rising from the salt huts, bending before the shore wind, as a sign that the god's heart bends toward us.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1909

Headnote: "Composed when those attending Retired Emperor Shirakawa on his pilgrimage to Kumano composed poems at the Shioya Ōji."
This is the fourth poem in the sequence on Kumano. The poet wishes to take the smoke rising from the salt huts and bending in the shore wind as the heart of the god inclining to grant their prayers. According to the headnote, it was composed when those attending Retired Emperor Shirakawa on his pilgrimage to Kumano composed poems at the Shioya Ōji. Over the scene of salt-burning smoke bending in the wind, he lays a hope that the god's heart will bend too.
The author, "Tokudaiji Sadaijin," the Minister of the Left of Tokudaiji, is Fujiwara no Saneyoshi. A son of Fujiwara no Kinzane, he rose to Minister of the Left and founded the Tokudaiji house.
The Ōji were subsidiary shrines of the Kumano deities scattered along the pilgrimage roads to Kumano, and the Shioya Ōji is one of them, by the sea in Kii Province.

The first line, "tachinoboru," means "rising up."
The second line, "Shioya no kemuri," is the smoke from the huts where salt is burned, working the name of the Shioya Ōji into the scene.
The third line, "urakaze ni," means "in the wind along the shore."
The fourth line, "nabiku o kami no," means "its bending, as the god's." The smoke bending in the wind is overlaid with the god's acceptance of prayers.
The last line, "kokoro tomogana," means "I wish it were his heart," closing with the desiderative particle "mogana." It shares the "mogana" ending with "yukusue mogana" in the preceding poem. It resembles "kami no kokoro ya nabikuran" in poem 1896 of this book, both speaking of the god's heart as "bending."
Author: Fujiwara no Saneyoshi
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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