Ika ni semu inochi mo shirazu Matsuyama no ue kosu nami ni kuchinu omoi o

いかにせむ命も知らず松山の
上越す波に朽ちぬ思ひを

Roma-ji: Ika ni semu inochi mo shirazu Matsuyama no ue kosu nami ni kuchinu omoi o
English Translation: What am I to do?
I know not how long I'll live;
though over Matsuyama
the waves should come surging,
this longing will not rot away.
Meaning: What am I to do? I cannot tell how long my life will last, and yet this longing will not rot away, even should the waves surge over the pine-clad mount of Matsuyama.
Commentary: Love Poems 493

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the theme of love at famous places"
What is he to do, the poet asks, not knowing how long his life will last, with a longing that would not rot even if waves were to cross Sue no Matsuyama? Drawing on the Kokinshū poem vowing that the waves would sooner cross that mountain than his heart would stray, it expresses unchanging love, and closes the series of love poems on famous places.
According to the notes in the base text, this is one of two poems found only in the Jōkyō text and not in the Ruijū text.

Line 1 means "what am I to do?" and the poem pauses here.
Line 2 means "not knowing how long I will live."
Line 3 names Sue no Matsuyama in Michinoku, a mountain waves never cross, a symbol of unchanging heart.
Line 4 means "by waves crossing over it," drawing on the source poem as a figure for the impossible.
Line 5 means "a longing that does not rot," returning by inversion to line 1. Against "shall I rot away" in 470, it sings of a longing that never rots.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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