Hitori nomi kurushiki umi o wataru to ya soko o satoranu hito wa miruran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ひとりのみ苦しき海を渡るとや
底を悟らぬ人は見るらん

Roma-ji: Hitori nomi kurushiki umi o wataru to ya soko o satoranu hito wa miruran
English Translation: For myself alone
crossing over the bitter sea,
is that how they see me,
those who cannot fathom
the depths that lie below?
Meaning: Do those who cannot fathom the depths see me as crossing this sea of suffering for my own sake alone?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1227

Headnote: "Composed on the line of the Disciples chapter of the Lotus Sutra, inwardly they hide the bodhisattva practice"
This poem was composed on the line of the chapter on the Five Hundred Disciples in the Lotus Sutra saying that they inwardly hide the bodhisattva practice. The sutra teaches that disciples such as Pūrṇa outwardly show the form of śrāvakas seeking only their own enlightenment, while inwardly they conceal the bodhisattva's practice of saving all beings. Do those who do not fathom the depths see me as crossing the bitter sea alone? he says, likening to the bottom of the sea the hidden vow to save others that lies deep in the heart of one who outwardly seems to cross the sea of suffering for himself alone.
The author, "Middle Captain of the Left Yoshitsune," is Kujō Yoshitsune. A son of Kujō Kanezane, he later rose to regent and chancellor. He was called the Go-Kyōgoku Regent and wrote the kana preface to the Shin Kokin Wakashū.

First line, "hitori nomi": "for myself alone," the posture of the śrāvaka seeking only his own enlightenment.
Second line, "kurushiki umi o": "kurushiki umi," the bitter sea, is the world of birth and death full of suffering likened to an ocean.
Third line, "wataru to ya": "wataru" means crossing the bitter sea to reach the shore of enlightenment, and "ya," an interrogative binding particle, closes with "ran" in the fifth line. It answers "watasamu to omou" in the second line of 1255 in this book.
Fourth line, "soko o satoranu": "soko" overlays the bottom of the sea with the depths of the heart, meaning the bodhisattva practice concealed within.
Fifth line, "hito wa miruran": "ran," the attributive of the present conjectural "ramu," closes the binding.
Author: Kujō Yoshitsune
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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