Wata no hara shioji haruka ni miwataseba kumo to nami to wa hitotsu narikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

わたの原潮路遥かに見渡せば
雲と波とは一つなりけり

Roma-ji: Wata no hara shioji haruka ni miwataseba kumo to nami to wa hitotsu narikeri
English Translation: On the wide sea plain,
when I gaze far out along
the paths of the tide,
the clouds and the waves
have become one and the same
Meaning: Gazing far out over the sea lanes of the wide ocean, I find that clouds and waves have merged into one.
Commentary: Book Eight Travel Poems 530

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a travel poem when a hundred-poem sequence was composed at the house"
Like the preceding poem, composed on the topic of travel for the hundred-poem sequence at Kujō Kanezane's house. Gazing far over the sea lanes of the wide ocean, I see that clouds and waves have become one, the poet says. Describing just as it is the vast view in which, at the horizon, the clouds of the sky and the waves of the sea can no longer be told apart, he conveys the endlessness of a sea journey.
The author, "Minister of Justice Yorisuke," is Fujiwara no Yorisuke, son of Major Counselor Fujiwara no Tadanori, who served as Minister of Justice. He is known as a master of kemari, the court football game.
A Shika Wakashū poem by Fujiwara no Tadamichi says that, rowing out onto the wide sea, he sees the white waves of the offing mistakable for clouds, and it is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. The scene in this poem of clouds and waves becoming one recalls it.

First line, "wata no hara": "the wide sea." Poem 516 of this book also opens with "wata no hara"; where 516 sees the moon of the capital out at sea, this poem surveys a scene of clouds and waves.
Second line, "shioji haruka ni": "shioji" is the path over the sea, the sea lane.
Third line, "miwataseba": "ba" gives a fixed condition, "when I gaze out."
Fourth line, "kumo to nami to wa": "the clouds of the sky and the waves of the sea."
Fifth line, "hitotsu narikeri": the exclamatory "keri" of realization, "they have become one."
Author: Fujiwara no Yorisuke
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Harubaru to Tsumori no oki o kogiyukeba kishi no matsukaze tōzakaru nari
Next Poem: Aware naru Nojima ga saki no iori kana tsuyu oku sode ni nami mo kakekeri