Sao sasedo sokoi mo shiranu watatsumi no fukaki kokoro o kimi ni miru kana - Tosa Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

棹させど底ひもしらぬわたつみの
ふかきこゝろを君に見るかな

Roma-ji: Sao sasedo sokoi mo shiranu watatsumi no fukaki kokoro o kimi ni miru kana
English Translation: Though I ply the pole,
no bottom can I find there:
the sea's boundless depth
is the depth of heart that I
see in you, my friends, today
Meaning: Like the sea, whose bottom no pole can ever reach, so deep is the heart I see in you.
Commentary: 7 The Twenty-Seventh Day of the Twelfth Month: From Ōtsu toward Urado, Mourning a Lost Daughter

On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, the party rowed out from Ōtsu toward Urado. Amid this departure, a little girl born in the capital had suddenly died here in Tosa, and so, watching the bustle of preparations, no one could find anything to say. Though they were going home to the capital, all they could feel was grief and longing for the girl who was no longer with them, and those around could not hold back their tears.
The "certain person" is not named, but, like the figure who leaves the governor's residence at the opening of the diary after completing his term, he is taken to be the former Governor of Tosa, Ki no Tsurayuki. The girl who died was his daughter; born in the capital, she had come down to Tosa when her father took up his post.
The new governor's brothers, who had followed the party all the way to Kako-no-saki, addressed them with "Oshi to omou hito ya tomaru to ashigamo no uchimurete koso ware wa kinikere," and this poem is the reply of the departing traveler, deeply moved.
In the midst of this exchange the steersman clamored, "The tide is in. The wind is sure to blow," and so the party boarded. At that moment people recited Chinese verses suited to the occasion, and some even sang songs of Kai Province, though this was the western land. That night they stayed at Urado, where Fujiwara no Tokizane, Tachibana no Suehira and others followed after them once more.

The first three lines, "Sao sasedo sokoi mo shiranu watatsumi no," mean "of the sea whose bottom cannot be found though one plies a pole," and form a preface leading to "fukaki" (deep) in the fourth line. "Sokoi" is the farthest bottom, and "watatsumi" means the sea.
The fourth line, "fukaki kokoro o," carries the depth of the sea over to the depth of feeling in those who came to see them off. The final line, "kimi ni miru kana," closes with emotion: such a deep heart I see in you. "Kana" is an exclamatory particle.
Answering a poem about ducks at the water's edge, the reply responds with the depth of the sea, another feature of the shore. Fitting for a scene on the verge of setting sail, it uses the language of sea travel, the pole and the deep, to express gratitude for the sincerity of those who came to see them off.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Tosa Nikki
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