Koko ni kie kashiko ni musubu mizu no awa no ukiyo ni meguru mi ni koso arikere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ここに消えかしこに結ぶ水の泡の
うき世にめぐる身にこそありけれ

Roma-ji: Koko ni kie kashiko ni musubu mizu no awa no ukiyo ni meguru mi ni koso arikere
English Translation: Vanishing here,
forming there once again,
like froth on water,
I am one who wanders round
this floating world of sorrow
Meaning: Vanishing here and forming again over there, like froth upon the water, I am one who keeps wandering round and round this sorrowful, floating world.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1202

Headnote: "Composed on the theme of the Vimalakīrti Sutra's ten similes: this body is like froth on water"
Among the ten similes in the Vimalakīrti Sutra that show the frailty of the body, this poem takes up the line that this body is like froth on water. Like froth that vanishes here and forms there, I am one who wanders through this sorrowful world, he says. In froth that disappears and arises again he sees the body caught in the cycle of rebirth, born only to die and dying only to be born again.
The author, "Former Major Counselor Kintō," is Fujiwara no Kintō. A son of the Regent and Chancellor Fujiwara no Yoritada, he rose to provisional major counselor. He compiled the Wakan Rōeishū, excelled in poetic theory, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets of the middle ages.
This poem opens the book of Buddhist poems. The next poem, 1203, also takes the ten similes as its theme, and poems on the ten similes appear again at 1224, 1234 and 1235 in this book. Where this opening poem laments a body wandering through the sorrowful world, the closing poem, 1255, teaches that the heart wishing to carry all people across is the guide to paradise, so a book that begins with the grief of rebirth ends on the path to birth in the Pure Land.

First line, "koko ni kie": "vanishing here," depicting froth fading away.
Second line, "kashiko ni musubu": "kashiko" means over there, and "musubu" the froth taking shape, forming a parallel with "koko ni kie" in the first line.
Third line, "mizu no awa no": "no" expresses likeness, "like froth on water," running on to the fourth line.
Fourth line, "ukiyo ni meguru": "uki" plays on "uki," sorrowful, and "uki," floating like froth. "Meguru" refers to the round of rebirth, life and death repeated.
Fifth line, "mi ni koso arikere": "koso" is an emphatic binding particle closing with "kere," the perfective form of the exclamatory "keri." It voices the realization that this is what the body truly is.
Author: Fujiwara no Kintō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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