Nami takaki yo o kogikogite hito wa mina Funaokayama o tomari ni zo suru

波高き世を漕ぎ漕ぎて人はみな
船岡山を泊りにぞする

Roma-ji: Nami takaki yo o kogikogite hito wa mina Funaokayama o tomari ni zo suru
English Translation: On the high-waved sea
of this world, rowing, rowing,
all people at last
make Funaoka Mountain
their final place to moor.
Meaning: Rowing on and on across the high waves of this world, all people in the end make Funaoka Mountain their harbor.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 849

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "From among the many poems on impermanence that I composed"
However people row across the high waves of this world, all in the end make Funaoka Mountain their harbor, the poet says. Funaoka, north of the capital, was a burial ground, and from the funa, boat, in its name he makes it the harbor where the boat of life comes to rest, taking up the boat poems before it.

First line, “nami takaki”: where the waves run high, a figure for a troubled world.
Second line, “yo o kogikogite”: rowing on and on through the world, life likened to the sea.
Third line, “hito wa mina”: everyone alike.
Fourth line, “Funaokayama o”: the burial ground, whose funa, boat, is related to kogi, rowing.
Fifth line, “tomari ni zo suru”: tomari is a harbor; zo is answered by the attributive suru.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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