Shikitae no makura no shita ni umi wa aredo hito o mirume wa oizu zo arikeru - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

敷妙の枕の下に海はあれど
人をみるめは生ひずぞありける

Roma-ji: Shikitae no makura no shita ni umi wa aredo hito o mirume wa oizu zo arikeru
English Translation: Beneath my pillow
there lies a sea of tears, and yet,
no seaweed grows there,
not the sea-pine of meeting,
the chance to see my love.
Meaning: Though a sea of tears lies beneath my pillow, the seaweed called mirume, the chance to see you, never grows there.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 595

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that although his tears have made a sea beneath his pillow, the seaweed of a chance to meet the beloved never grows in it. To the exaggeration of tears as a sea is added the pun on mirume, both a seaweed and "a chance to meet," wittily expressing the lament of a love that cannot meet no matter how much one weeps.
Ki no Tomonori was a poet of the early Heian period, the son of Ki no Aritomo and a cousin of Ki no Tsurayuki. He served as Senior Private Secretary and was appointed one of the compilers of the Kokinshū, but died before its completion. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

First line, "shikitae no": a pillow word modifying "pillow," "bed," "sleeve," and the like.
Second line, "makura no shita ni": beneath the pillow of one who sleeps alone.
Third line, "umi wa aredo": the shed tears have filled the space beneath the pillow like a sea, and the concessive do leads to the fourth line. Like 567 of this book, in which tears fill the bed and the poet becomes a channel marker, it exaggerates tears as a sea.
Fourth line, "hito o mirume wa": mirume is a pun on the seaweed mirume and mirume, "a chance to see someone," and is also an associated word of the sea.
Fifth line, "oizu zo arikeru": the binding particle zo is resolved by the attributive keru. It closes with the lament that though there is a sea, no seaweed grows, that is, there is no chance to meet.
Author: Ki no Tomonori
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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