Fuku kaze no taenu kagiri shi tachikureba namiji wa itodo harukekarikeri - Tosa Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

吹くかぜの絶えぬ限りし立ちくれば
波路はいとゞはるけかりけり

Roma-ji: Fuku kaze no taenu kagiri shi tachikureba namiji wa itodo harukekarikeri
English Translation: So long as the wind
that blows here does not cease and
the waves come rising,
the sea-road home to the court
stretches farther, farther still
Meaning: As long as the wind keeps blowing and the waves keep rising, the sea road home seems to stretch ever farther.
Commentary: 36 The Twenty-Seventh Day of the First Month: The Long Road to the Capital

On the twenty-seventh day of the first month, the wind blew and the waves ran high, so the boat did not sail. Everyone lamented deeply. To console themselves the men recited Chinese verse, speaking of lines such as "Gaze at the sun, and the capital is far."
"Gaze at the sun, and the capital is far" is a line based on the story of Emperor Ming of Jin in China, who as a child was asked which was farther, the sun or the capital Chang'an, and answered that if he raised his eyes he could see the sun but not Chang'an.
Following a certain woman's "Hi o dani mo amagumo chikaku miru mono o miyako e to omou michi no harukesa," a certain person composed this poem.
The wind did not stop all that day, and people flicked their fingernails in frustration and went to sleep. On the next day, the twenty-eighth, the rain did not let up all night.

The first and second lines, "Fuku kaze no taenu kagiri shi," mean "as long as the blowing wind does not cease," with "shi" an emphatic particle. The third line, "tachikureba," means "because the waves rise and come rolling in," overlaying the rising of the wind and the rising of the waves.
In the fourth line, "namiji wa itodo," "itodo" means "all the more, ever more." The final line, "harukekarikeri," closes with the exclamatory auxiliary "keri": how distant it is.
Taking up the previous poem's lament over the distance of the road to the capital, this one says that because the wind does not stop and the waves keep rising, the sea road feels all the farther. It entrusts the frustration of being held back to the ceaselessness of wind and waves.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Tosa Nikki
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