Yuku toshi wa nami to tomo ni ya kaeruran omogawari senu Waka no ura kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

行く年は波とともにや返るらん
面変はりせぬ和歌の浦かな

Roma-ji: Yuku toshi wa nami to tomo ni ya kaeruran omogawari senu Waka no ura kana
English Translation: The departing years,
do they too return again
with the rolling waves?
How unchanging is the face
of the Bay of Waka here
Meaning: Do the passing years come back with the waves as they ebb and flow? How the Bay of Waka never changes its face.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1051

Headnote: "Composed on the Bay of Waka"
This poem was composed on the Bay of Waka. Do the passing years return with the waves? How unchanging is the Bay of Waka, he says. Seeing the scenery of the Bay of Waka unchanged however many years pass, he imagines that the departing years return with the ebb and flow of the waves, and praises the unchanging famous place. The Bay of Waka is a famous place sung with a play on "waka," the way of poetry, and a wish celebrating the constancy of that way may also be read in it.
The author, "Hafuribe no Sukune Narinaka," was a poet from the Hafuribe family who served as a priest of the Hie Shrine.
This poem closes the first book of miscellaneous poems. Where the opening poem, 959, sings of piling up years like a pine in a valley, this closing poem sings of the passing years returning with the waves, so that the beginning and end of the book answer each other in the passing of years. And against the wish "omogawari suna," do not change your face, in 996 and 1022 of this book, this poem closes the book by praising the Bay of Waka that "omogawari senu," never changes its face.

First line, "yuku toshi wa": "the years that pass away." It answers "toshi o tsumamashi" in the fifth line of the opening poem, 959.
Second line, "nami to tomo ni ya": "ya" is an interrogative binding particle closing with "ran" in the third line, "together with the ebbing and flowing waves."
Third line, "kaeruran": "ran" is the auxiliary of present conjecture, "do they return?" The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "omogawari senu": "whose face does not change at all." It answers "omogawari suna" in the fourth line of 996 and the fifth line of 1022 of this book.
Fifth line, "Waka no ura kana": the Bay of Waka is a famous place in Kii Province, and "kana" is exclamatory. The book closes with a name that also evokes the way of poetry.
Author: Hafuribe no Narinaka
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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