Hayasegawa mio sakanoboru ukaibune mazu kono yo ni mo ikaga kurushiki - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

早瀬川澪さかのぼる鵜飼舟
まづこの世にもいかが苦しき

Roma-ji: Hayasegawa mio sakanoboru ukaibune mazu kono yo ni mo ikaga kurushiki
English Translation: On the swift river
pushing up against the stream,
the cormorant boats:
even here in this world, first,
how bitter must their labor be!
Meaning: O cormorant boats pushing up the channel of the swift river: setting aside what awaits you in the next life, how hard your labor must be even here in this world!
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 205

Headnote: "Composed by the Retired Emperor on the topic 'Cormorant Fishing on the River' among his hundred poems"
Composed by Retired Emperor Sutoku himself on "Cormorant Fishing on the River" as part of a hundred-poem sequence. Watching the cormorant boats pushing up the channel of a swift river, he thinks that, quite apart from the retribution in the next life for the sin of taking life, the labor of rowing against the rapids must be painful indeed even in this world. While drawing on the Buddhist view of cormorant fishing as a sinful trade, the poem feels for the hardship of the fishermen in this present life.
The author, "Poem by Retired Emperor Sutoku," is Emperor Sutoku, eldest son of Emperor Toba. Defeated in the Hōgen Disturbance, he was exiled to Sanuki and died there. He loved poetry deeply and is known for calling for the Kyūan Hundred-Poem Sequence. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
The second line of this text reads "mio sakanoharu," which does not agree with "mio sakanohoru" in the reading line. Since "sakanoharu" makes no sense, it is taken to be a copying error, and here the reading line's "sakanoboru," to go upstream, is followed.

First line, "hayasegawa": a river with a swift current.
Second line, "mio sakanoboru": "mio" is a boat channel, and the boats push up it against the current. Poem 182 of this book also speaks of the channel.
Third line, "ukaibune": boats for cormorant fishing, catching sweetfish and the like with trained cormorants. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "mazu kono yo ni mo": "mazu" means "first of all," implying "leaving aside the next life, even in this world."
Fifth line, "ikaga kurushiki": the interrogative adverb "ikaga" closes with the attributive "kurushiki": "how painful it must be," a voice of sympathy.
Author: Retired Emperor Sutoku
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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