Waga koi wa momoshima meguri hamachidori yukue mo shiranu kata ni naku nari

わが恋は百島めぐり浜千鳥
行方も知らぬ方に鳴くなり

Roma-ji: Waga koi wa momoshima meguri hamachidori yukue mo shiranu kata ni naku nari
English Translation: This love of mine:
a plover of the shore that
circles a hundred isles,
crying off in some direction
whose end I do not know.
Meaning: My love is like the shore plover circling a hundred islands, crying as it goes off in a direction no one knows.
Commentary: Love Poems 428

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Among poems on love"
As the shore plover circles countless islands and flies off crying toward no one knows where, so the poet's love has no settled course and he does nothing but weep. The plover's cry is laid over the voice of one weeping in love.
The base text glosses meguri in line 2 with meguru. According to the notes in the base text, the Ruijū and Teika texts differ in line 2. Here the base text is followed. Kamo no Mabuchi marked this poem with a circle.

Line 1 means "this love of mine," the same opening as 410.
Line 2 means "circling a hundred islands."
Line 3 names the shore plover, a bird that flies crying in flocks, a symbol of love's lament.
Line 4 means "not knowing where it goes," overlaid with love's uncertain course.
Line 5: nari expresses inference, "it seems to cry," overlaying the bird's cry and the poet's weeping. The imagery moves from the moon of the preceding poems to a bird of the shore.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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