Ariso koshi hoka yuku nami no hokagokoro ware wa omowaji koite shinu tomo

荒礒越し外行く波の外心
我れは思はじ恋ひて死ぬとも

Roma-ji: Ariso koshi hoka yuku nami no hokagokoro ware wa omowaji koite shinu tomo
English Translation: Like the waves that cross
over the rocky seashore
and stray far beyond,
I will never let my heart stray,
though I die of love for you
Meaning: Like the waves that cross the rugged shore and stray beyond it, I will never let my heart stray elsewhere, though I should die of love.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2434

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Just as waves cross the rugged shore and stray away beyond it, the speaker vows never to turn his heart to another, even if longing should be the death of him. Through the movement of the waves he rejects a straying heart, voicing a firm resolve to keep to a single-minded love.
The scene moves from the rivers and water surfaces of the preceding poems to waves on a rocky seashore, and for a while poems on the sea and the lake follow. Among the poems of the Hitomaro Collection, this one is written in the fuller script style that records particles and other words.
The author is unknown; according to the left note, the poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection. That collection is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he recorded. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jito and Emperor Monmu, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "ariso koshi": "crossing the rocky shore," picturing waves surging over a rugged, rock-strewn coast.
Second line, "hoka yuku nami no": "like waves going beyond." The lines up to here form a preface that leads, through the repeated sound of hoka, "beyond," to "a straying heart" in the third line.
Third line, "hokagokoro": "a heart that strays elsewhere," a fickle heart. Echoing the waves of the preface, it states plainly a heart turning aside.
Fourth line, "ware wa omowaji": "I will not hold such a heart." The negative-volitional auxiliary "ji" makes a firm declaration, and the poem breaks after this fourth line.
Fifth line, "koite shinu tomo": "though I should die of love." "Tomo" expresses a concessive supposition, added after the fourth line in inversion.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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