Katsuragawa waga kokoro ni mo kayowanedo onaji fukasa wa nagaru beranari - Tosa Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

桂川わがこゝろにもかよはねど
おなじふかさはながるべらなり

Roma-ji: Katsuragawa waga kokoro ni mo kayowanedo onaji fukasa wa nagaru beranari
English Translation: Katsura River,
though you do not share your course
with my heart, it seems
with the very same deepness
you go flowing on your way
Meaning: Katsura River, though you have no bond with my heart, you seem to flow with the very same depth as my feelings.
Commentary: 55 The Sixteenth Day of the Second Month: Crossing the Katsura River and Arriving Home

On the sixteenth day of the second month, as they went up toward the capital around evening, they saw that the paintings on the shop chests of Yamazaki and the shape of the main street at Magari were unchanged from before. At Shimasaka someone offered them hospitality. Thinking to enter the capital after nightfall, they took their time, and meanwhile the moon rose. The party crossed the Katsura River under the bright moon. People said to one another, "This river is not the Asuka River, so its deep pools and shallows have not changed at all." Late at night they entered the capital, and when they reached the house and passed through the gate, the moon was so bright that everything could be clearly seen. The house was more broken down and ruined than they had heard, beyond words.
The Katsura River flows west of the capital and is crossed when entering the capital from Yamazaki. The Asuka River was regarded as the very emblem of change because of the Kokin Wakashū poem "Yo no naka wa nani ka tsune naru asukagawa kinō no fuchi zo kyō wa se ni naru." The house had been entrusted to the neighbor, whose home was separated only by a fence so that the two were almost one house; he had asked to look after it, and they had sent him things from time to time while they were away.
While crossing the Katsura River, following "Hisakata no tsuki ni oitaru katsuragawa soko naru kage mo kawarazarikeri" and "Amagumo no haruka naritsuru katsuragawa sode o hidete mo watarinuru kana," yet another person composed this poem.
The diarist writes that in their joy at reaching the capital there were almost too many poems. Late at night they entered the capital, and on reaching the house found it more ruined than they had heard.

The first line, "Katsuragawa," is placed as if calling out to the river being crossed. The second line, "waga kokoro ni mo," means "with my heart too." The third line, "kayowanedo," continues concessively: "though you are not joined with it."
The fourth line, "onaji fukasa wa," means "with the same depth as my heart." In the final line, "nagaru beranari," "beranari" is an auxiliary of conjecture: it seems to flow.
Though the Katsura River has no bond with the speaker's heart, it seems to flow with the same depth as the joy of returning to the capital: the poem overlays the depth of the river with the depth of feeling. Like the two before it, it sings the emotion of crossing the Katsura River.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Tosa Nikki
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