Yukusaki ni tatsu shiranami no koe yori mo okurete nakamu ware ya masaramu - Tosa Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

ゆくさきにたつ白浪の聲よりも
おくれて泣かむわれやまさらむ

Roma-ji: Yukusaki ni tatsu shiranami no koe yori mo okurete nakamu ware ya masaramu
English Translation: Than the very voice
of white waves that rise ahead
where you go, will not
my weeping, left behind here,
be louder still, I wonder?
Meaning: Louder than the roar of the white waves rising on the road ahead—will my weeping, left behind, not be louder still?
Commentary: 16 The Seventh Day of the First Month: Spring Greens at Ōminato and a Child's Reply

Even after the new year began, the party remained at Ōminato. The seventh day of the first month was the day of the White Horse Festival in the capital, but here all they could see was the whiteness of the waves. Amid this, from someone living at a place called Ike, or "Pond," came load after load of long chests carried on poles, filled not with carp but with crucian carp and other fish from river and sea, accompanied by young spring greens. It was those greens that reminded them this was the seventh day.
The sender was a woman of good standing who had come down to Tosa with her husband and lived at the place called Ike. On this day there was also a man who came calling with a packed lunch, but the diary notes that his name cannot be recalled.
The man who brought the packed lunch had come with an ulterior motive: he wanted to compose a poem. Chatting about this and that, he made a show of worrying about the rising waves and then recited this poem.
The diarist remarks wryly that he must have meant to wail very loudly indeed, and wonders how his poem compared with the food he had brought. People made a show of being moved, but not one of them replied, even though there were some present who ought to have; they simply went on eating until the night grew late. The poet said "mata makarazu" and left. Afterward a child, the son of a certain person, quietly offered to reply to the poem, and would go on to compose "Yuku hito mo tomaru mo sode no namidagawa migiwa nomi koso nuremasarikere."

The first line, "Yukusaki ni," means "on the way ahead." The second line, "tatsu shiranami no," "of the white waves that rise," leads into the third, "koe yori mo," setting up a comparison with the sound of the waves.
The fourth line, "okurete nakamu," means "I who will weep, left behind," with "mu" an auxiliary of conjecture. In the final line, "ware ya masaramu," "ya" is an interrogative particle and "mu" again an auxiliary of conjecture: will my weeping not be the greater?
Setting the sound of the waves before the traveler against his own weeping as he sees him off, the poem exaggerates the sorrow of parting. The diarist's narration, however, teases this overstatement, remarking that his wailing must be loud indeed, and views the poem coolly.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Tosa Nikki
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