Kaze fukeba nami utsu kishi no iwa nare ya kataku mo aru ka hito no kokoro no

風吹けば波打つ岸の岩なれや
かたくもあるか人の心の

Roma-ji: Kaze fukeba nami utsu kishi no iwa nare ya kataku mo aru ka hito no kokoro no
English Translation: When the wind blows,
is it the rock upon the shore
the waves beat against?
How hard and unyielding
is the heart of the one I love.
Meaning: Is it like a rock on the shore that the waves beat against whenever the wind blows? How hard and unyielding is the heart of the one I love.
Commentary: Love Poems 445

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Among poems on love"
Like a rock on the shore that does not move though waves beat upon it with every gust, the beloved's heart does not move however much the poet longs; he laments its hardness.
The Ruijū text places it in the section of poems found in another manuscript and in printed editions. According to the notes in the base text, the reading katamo in line 4 in the original manuscript and the Ruijū text is probably an error.

Line 1 means "when the wind blows."
Line 2 means "of the shore the waves beat on," continuing the seashore scenes of the two preceding poems.
Line 3: ya is interrogative, "is it a rock?"; the poem pauses here.
Line 4: ka is exclamatory, "how hard it is."
Line 5 means "the heart of the one I love," the subject placed last by inversion.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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