Inishie no onoe no kane ni nitaru kana kishi utsu nami no akatsuki no koe - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いにしへの尾上の鐘に似たるかな
岸打つ浪の暁の声

Roma-ji: Inishie no onoe no kane ni nitaru kana kishi utsu nami no akatsuki no koe
English Translation: Long ago, the bell
upon the peak I heard—how
it resembles now
the waves that strike upon the shore,
their voice at break of dawn.
Meaning: How like the bell on the mountain peak I heard long ago—this voice of waves breaking on the shore at dawn.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1968

Headnote: "When dawn comes, and the voice of the waves draws up to the golden shore."
This is the fourth poem in the sequence of poems by various poets on scriptural phrases and Buddhist observances. The sound of dawn waves breaking on the golden shore of paradise resembles the bell of Onoe heard long ago in this world. According to the headnote, it was, like the preceding poem, written for the paintings of the Gokuraku Rokuji San, depicting the scene when "dawn comes, and the voice of the waves draws up to the golden shore."
In the sound of dawn waves in the Pure Land, the poet recalls a bell heard in this world, overlaying the splendor of the Pure Land with the fondness of one reborn there for the world left behind.
No author is named in the text; continuing from the preceding poem, this is a poem by Kōtaigōgū no Daibu Shunzei, a son of Fujiwara no Toshitada and the poet who compiled the Senzai Wakashū. He took vows under the name Shakua and was the father of Fujiwara no Teika.
The Onoe bell is a bell rung at a temple on a mountain summit; the bell of Onoe at Takasago in Harima Province is known as a poetic place.

The first line, "inishie no," means "of long ago," showing what was heard in this world before rebirth.
The second line, "onoe no kane ni," is the bell of a mountaintop temple, recalling the sound of bells in this world. Against the evening bell of 1955 in this book, which tolled impermanence, the bell here evokes the resonance of the Pure Land.
The third line, "nitaru kana," uses the continuative "tari" and the exclamatory "kana": how it resembles! The poem breaks here, in inversion with the lower half.
The fourth line, "kishi utsu nami no," is the wave that, as the headnote says, "draws up to the golden shore," breaking on the banks of the jeweled ponds of paradise.
The last line, "akatsuki no koe," ends on a noun and corresponds to the late-night period of the Six Periods hymn. Time moves from the evening of the preceding poem to dawn, and the next poem, by Princess Shikishi, continues with "dawn" as well.
Author: Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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