Miru mo naku me mo naki umi no iso ni idete kaerugaeru mo uramitsuru kana - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

みるもなくめもなき海の磯に出でて
かへるがへるもうらみつるかな

Roma-ji: Miru mo naku me mo naki umi no iso ni idete kaerugaeru mo uramitsuru kana
English Translation: No seaweed to see,
no sea grass, nor any glance,
on the barren shore
I go out, and turning back,
again and again, I grieve
Meaning: I went out to a rocky shore with no seaweed and no sea grass, where I could neither see you nor meet your eyes, and coming back again and again like the returning waves, I gazed at the bay and grieved.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems IV 799

Headnote: "Sent again when there was no reply."
The poet says he went out to a shore with neither seaweed nor sea grass and, returning again and again, gazed at the bay and grieved. He likens a love in which he can neither meet her nor catch her glance to a barren shore, voicing the futility and bitterness of turning back time after time.
According to the headnote, the poem was sent again because the preceding poem, 798, received no reply. It is an elaborate poem in which sea words, "miru," "me," "kaeru," and "urami," each carry a second, amorous sense.
The poet, Ki no Tomonori, was a son of Ki no Aritomo and a cousin of Ki no Tsurayuki. One of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū, he died before it was completed. One of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, his "hisakata no hikari nodokeki haru no hi ni" is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

The first line, "Miru mo naku," means "with no miru seaweed," with "miru" also meaning "to see," that is, to meet.
The second line, "me mo naki umi no," means "of a sea with no sea grass," "me" also meaning "eyes," so that their eyes never meet.
The third line, "iso ni idete," means "going out to the rocky shore."
The fourth line, "kaerugaeru mo," means "again and again," joining the returning waves with his own futile returns. The next poem, 800, also places "kaeru" in its last line, overlapping the ebbing waves with a man's leaving.
The last line, "uramitsuru kana," joins "ura miru," to gaze at the bay, with "uramu," to resent, meaning "how I gazed at the bay and grieved." "Kana" expresses emotion.
Author: Ki no Tomonori
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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