Sazare nami ukite nagaruru hatsusegawa yorubeki iso no naki ga sabushisa

さざれ波浮きて流るる泊瀬川
寄るべき礒のなきが寂しさ

Roma-ji: Sazare nami ukite nagaruru hatsusegawa yorubeki iso no naki ga sabushisa
English Translation: Little rippling waves
floating as they flow along
the Hatsuse River—
that it has no rocky shore for boats
is a lonely thing indeed
Meaning: On the Hatsuse River, where little ripples drift as they flow, there is no rocky shore where boats might come to rest—and that is a lonely thing.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Miscellaneous Poems 3226

Headnote: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to the chōka (3225). Regretting that the Hatsuse River has no rocky shore where boats might land, it takes up the chōka’s questions—“is it because there is no bay?” “because there is no rocky shore?”—and closes on loneliness. The chōka blesses the river, calling the fishermen’s boats to race in even though it lacks bays and shores; the envoy instead laments that lack, giving a shade of feeling to the praise of the land. The chōka’s “let there be no bay” echoes the same phrase in Kakinomoto no Hitomaro’s Iwami poem (Book Two, 131).
The poet is unknown. Book Thirteen is built mainly of anonymous chōka and their envoys, and many of its poems preserve the air of old songs and ritual verse.

The first line, “sazare nami,” means small, fine ripples, picturing the calm surface of a river winding through the hills.
The second line, “ukite nagaruru,” shows the ripples flowing as if floating on the water; the attributive form “nagaruru” modifies the river that follows.
The third line, “Hatsusegawa,” is the river of Hatsuse in Yamato (today’s Sakurai, Nara), taking up the chōka’s “the Hatsuse River of the hidden valley.”
In the fourth line, “beki” is the attributive form of “beshi,” expressing what ought to be: a shore where boats should properly come in.
The closing line ends on the noun “sabushisa” (loneliness), leaving the lament to linger. The adjective is read in its old form “sabushi.”
Source: Manyoshu
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