Kogite yuku fune nite mireba ashibiki no yama sae yuku o matsu wa shirazu ya - Tosa Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

漕ぎて行く船にてみればあしびきの
山さへゆくを松は知らずや

Roma-ji: Kogite yuku fune nite mireba ashibiki no yama sae yuku o matsu wa shirazu ya
English Translation: Seen from a boat as
we row on and on our way,
even the mountains
seem to move along with us—
do the pine trees not know it?
Meaning: Seen from our boat as we row along, even the mountains seem to be moving—don't the pine trees on them know?
Commentary: 31 The Twenty-Second Day of the First Month: Moving Mountains and Flowers of Foam

On the twenty-second day of the first month, the party set out from the previous night's anchorage toward another. Mountains could be seen in the distance. The sea was rough that day; spray scattered over the rocky shore like falling snow, and the waves broke into flowers of foam.
On board was a boy of about nine, who seemed younger than his years.
As the boat rowed on, the mountains too seemed to be moving, and the boy, finding this strange, composed this poem.
The diarist remarks that it is fitting for a poem by a little child. Then, looking at the waves of the rough sea, a certain person composed "Nami to nomi hitoe ni kikedo iro mireba yuki to hana to ni magaikeru kana."

The first and second lines, "Kogite yuku fune nite mireba," mean "when I look from the boat as we row along." The third line, "ashibiki no," is a pillow word for "yama" (mountain).
In the fourth line, "yama sae yuku o," "sae" is an adverbial particle of addition: even the mountains are moving. The final line, "matsu wa shirazu ya," closes as a question: do the pines on the mountain not know it? "Ya" is an interrogative particle.
The poem simply puts into verse a child's wide-eyed wonder that the mountains on shore seem to move as the boat goes along. There is a little child's innocence in the thought that the mountains are moving, yet the pines growing on them do not notice.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Tosa Nikki
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