Sumiyoshi no hamamatsu ga e ni kaze fukeba nami no shirayū kakenu ma zo naki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

住吉の浜松が枝に風吹けば
波の白木綿かけぬ間ぞなき

Roma-ji: Sumiyoshi no hamamatsu ga e ni kaze fukeba nami no shirayū kakenu ma zo naki
English Translation: At Sumiyoshi
when the wind blows through the boughs
of the seaside pines,
the white bark-cloth of the waves—
no moment it is not hung.
Meaning: When the wind blows through the boughs of the seaside pines at Sumiyoshi, there is not a moment when the waves do not hang them with white bark-cloth.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1913

Headnote: "Composed when the First-Rank Princess Satoko visited Sumiyoshi and people composed poems."
This is a poem on the Sumiyoshi Shrine. When the wind blows through the seaside pines at Sumiyoshi, there is no moment when the white spray of the waves is not hung upon them like bark-cloth. According to the headnote, it was composed when the First-Rank Princess Satoko visited Sumiyoshi and people composed poems. Seeing the white spray as the white bark-cloth offered to the gods, it pictures the shore scene itself as worshipping the god.
The author, Fujiwara no Michitsune, was a poet of the late Heian period.
Princess Satoko was a daughter of Emperor Go-Sanjō and was granted the First Rank.

The first line, "Sumiyoshi no," refers to Sumiyoshi in Settsu. Through the place, it echoes the divine poems of Sumiyoshi, poems 1855 to 1857 of this book.
The second line, "hamamatsu ga e ni," means "on the boughs of the seaside pines."
The third line, "kaze fukeba," means "whenever the wind blows," the perfective with "ba" expressing a constant condition.
The fourth line, "nami no shirayū," likens the white spray of breaking waves to the white bark-cloth offered to the gods.
The last line, "kakenu ma zo naki," means "there is no moment it is not hung," closing the particle "zo" with the attributive "naki" in kakari-musubi. It is the same line as the last line of poem 1887 of this book; there a person sets his heart on the god, while here the waves hang white bark-cloth on the pines.
Author: Fujiwara no Michitsune
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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