Tateba tatsu ireba mata iru fuku kaze to nami to wa omou dochi ni ya aruramu - Tosa Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

立てばたつゐれば又ゐる吹く風と
浪とは思ふどちにやあるらむ

Roma-ji: Tateba tatsu ireba mata iru fuku kaze to nami to wa omou dochi ni ya aruramu
English Translation: When it stands, they stand;
when it rests, they rest again—
are the blowing wind
and the waves, I wonder, then
two who think alike as friends?
Meaning: When the wind rises, the waves rise; when it settles, they settle too. Could the wind and the waves be dear friends of one mind?
Commentary: 24 The Fifteenth Day of the First Month: Held Back by Wind and Waves

The fifteenth day of the first month was the day for cooking red-bean porridge, but none was made. Sadly the weather stayed bad, and while the party could make only slow progress, more than twenty days had passed since setting out. With the days slipping idly by, people did nothing but gaze at the sea.
The young girl who composes a poem in this scene was a girl attending the party. Eating red-bean porridge on the fifteenth day of the first month was a seasonal observance to ward off evil.
Watching how the waves rose when the wind rose and calmed when the wind died down, the young girl composed this poem.
The diarist comments that, for something said by a person of no account, it was very apt indeed. The wind and waves did not cease the next day either, and the party remained where it was.

The first line, "Tateba tatsu," means "when the wind rises, the waves rise," and the second, "ireba mata iru," "when the wind settles, the waves settle too." "Iru" originally means to sit or to stay, and the poem also overlays the motion of a person standing up and sitting down.
The third and fourth lines, "fuku kaze to nami to wa omou," lead into the final line, "dochi ni ya aruramu," closing with "are they friends who think of each other?" "Dochi" means companion, "ya" is interrogative, and "ramu" is an auxiliary of present conjecture.
Likening the wind and waves moving together to close friends, it is a simple, childlike poem of comparison. Beneath it one senses the frustration of a party unable to sail because of the rough sea.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Tosa Nikki
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