Makimuku no yamabe hibikite yuku mizu no minawa no goto ni yo o ba waga miru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

巻向の山辺響きて行く水の
水沫のごとに世をば我が見る

Roma-ji: Makimuku no yamabe hibikite yuku mizu no minawa no goto ni yo o ba waga miru
English Translation: Like the foam that floats
on waters roaring down
by Makimuku's
mountainside, so this world
is what I see it to be.
Meaning: Like the foam on the water that roars as it flows along the mountainside of Makimuku, so I see this world.
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1320

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed in sorrow after his wife had died"
The poet says he sees the world as the foam of the water that roars down past the mountainside of Makimuku. Like the preceding poem, 1319, its headnote marks it as composed in sorrow after his wife's death. Laying the transience of the world over foam that rises and at once vanishes on a rushing mountain stream, he sings of a heart that has learned the impermanence of the world through losing his wife. It shares with the final line of 1313 in this book, "mizu no awa kana," the laying of life's transience over foam on the water.
The author, written as "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A court poet who served in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, he is revered as the Saint of Poetry. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
A similar poem appears in Book Seven of the Man'yōshū as a poem from the Hitomaro Collection, with the lower verse "minawa no gotoshi yo no hito ware wa."

First line, "Makimuku no," means "of Mount Makimuku" in Yamato.
Second line, "yamabe hibikite," means "roaring along the mountainside," the sound of a rushing stream.
Third line, "yuku mizu no," means "of the flowing water." Up to here the lines lead into "minawa" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "minawa no goto ni," means "like foam on water," a figure for what fades away.
Final line, "yo o ba waga miru," means "so I see the world," with "ba" emphatic.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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