Ise no umi no tsuri no uke naru sama naredo fukaki kokoro wa soko ni shizumeri - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

伊勢の海の釣りのうけなるさまなれど
深き心は底に沈めり

Roma-ji: Ise no umi no tsuri no uke naru sama naredo fukaki kokoro wa soko ni shizumeri
English Translation: Like the fisher's float
bobbing on the Sea of Ise
I may look to you,
but the depth of my heart
lies sunken at the bottom
Meaning: I may look like a fisherman's float bobbing on the Sea of Ise, but the depth of my heart lies sunk far down at the bottom.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1085

Headnote: "When people laughed at my shabby appearance."
The poet says that he may look like a fisherman's float bobbing on the Sea of Ise, yet the depth of his heart lies sunk at the bottom. Laughed at for his looks, he retorts with a chain of sea imagery that, however much he resembles a float, his heart is as deep as the sea floor.
According to the headnote, it was composed when people laughed at his shabby appearance. Following the rotten timber of the preceding poem, this one offers a fishing float, so two poems answering others' words by likening himself to things stand side by side.
The poet, "Mitsune," is Ōshikōchi no Mitsune. One of the compilers of the Kokinshu, he is counted among the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals. The Ogura Hyakunin Isshu includes his poem "Kokoroate ni oraba ya oramu hatsushimo no."

The first line, "Ise no umi no," means "of the Sea of Ise," a place name that suggests the depth of the sea.
The second line, "tsuri no uke naru," means "like a fishing float," with "uke" the float on a fishing line. Its bobbing on the surface figures his own seemingly frivolous appearance.
The third line, "sama naredo," means "though that is how I look," with "do" adversative. It takes up "sugata ayashi," shabby looks, of the headnote.
The fourth line, "fukaki kokoro wa," means "my deep heart," overlaid with the depth of the Sea of Ise.
The last line, "soko ni shizumeri," means "lies sunk at the bottom," with "ri" the continuative auxiliary. Setting "sinking" against the float's "floating," he rounds off the poem with related sea words.
Author: Oshikochi no Mitsune
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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