Ōumi ni tatsu ramu nami wa aida aramu kimi ni kōraku yamu toki mo nashi

大海に立つらむ波は間あらむ
君に恋ふらくやむ時もなし

Roma-ji: Ōumi ni tatsu ramu nami wa aida aramu kimi ni kōraku yamu toki mo nashi
English Translation: Out on the wide sea
the waves that must now be rising
have their pauses, sure;
but this love of mine for you
has no moment when it stops
Meaning: The waves that must be rising now on the wide sea will surely have their pauses; but my love for you never has a moment's rest.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2741

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The waves that rise on the wide sea must surely have their pauses, but the speaker's longing for the beloved never ceases. Measuring love against the waves of the vast ocean, the poem insists that the heart's longing is more unceasing still.
As a poem expressing feelings through things, it speaks through the waves of the great sea. Unlike the preceding poems, which turn from waves to love by way of a preface, this one sets the waves and love side by side; by granting that the waves "have their pauses," it throws into relief a love that has none. Where poems 2736 and 2737 of this book liken love to waves "without a pause," this poem reverses the image, saying that even the waves have pauses. Its last line, "yamu toki mo nashi," reads like an answer to the question "will my love cease?" in poem 2738.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "Ōumi ni": "on the wide sea." Bringing in the vast ocean calls to mind waves of great size and endless motion.
Second line, "tatsu ramu nami wa": "the waves that must be rising." "Ramu" conjectures about something happening now out of sight, imagining the waves of the distant sea. The particle "wa" singles out the waves as the thing to be contrasted with love.
Third line, "aida aramu": "they will have their pauses." "Mu" is the conjectural auxiliary, and the poem breaks here. Granting the waves their pauses sets up the contrast with the lower verse.
Fourth line, "kimi ni kōraku": "my loving you." "Kōraku," the nominalized form of "kou," serves as the subject like a noun.
Fifth line, "yamu toki mo nashi": "there is no time it stops." The particle "mo" stresses that it does not cease even for a moment, closing the poem with a firm declaration.
Source: Manyoshu
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