Sora ya umi umi ya sora tomo e zo wakanu kasumi mo nami mo tachimichi ni tsutsu

空や海海や空ともえぞ分かぬ
霞も波も立ち満ちにつつ

Roma-ji: Sora ya umi umi ya sora tomo e zo wakanu kasumi mo nami mo tachimichi ni tsutsu
English Translation: Is the sky the sea,
or is the sea the sky?
I cannot tell them apart,
for the mist and the waves alike
rise up and fill everything.
Meaning: Is the sky the sea, or the sea the sky? I cannot tell them apart, for the haze and the waves rise up and fill all that I see.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 590

Headnote: "At daybreak the haze spread over the eightfold sea lanes and sky and sea looked as one"
Gazing at the sea at dawn, the poet sees haze spread over the distant sea lanes so that sky and sea appear as one. The repetition with sky and sea exchanged conveys the wide scene in which the boundary has vanished.
The Ruijū text ends the headnote with "composed." The base text bears variant notes for lines 2 and 3, the Jōkyō text writing line 3 both as mie wakanu and e zo wakanu; here it is read "or the sea the sky" and e zo wakanu, as in the Ruijū text and the text transmitted by Teika.

Line 1 means "is the sky the sea?"
Line 2 means "or the sea the sky?" reversing the order of line 1.
Line 3 means "I cannot tell," e ... nu expressing impossibility and zo concluded by nu, with a break after the line.
Line 4 means "both the haze and the waves," pairing sky and sea as in the opening lines.
Line 5 means "rising and filling all," tachi governing both haze and waves; the inversion gives the reason last.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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