Au koto wa funabito yowami kogu fune no mio sakanoboru kokochi koso sure - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢ふことは舟人弱み漕ぐ舟の
みをさかのぼる心地こそすれ

Roma-ji: Au koto wa funabito yowami kogu fune no mio sakanoboru kokochi koso sure
English Translation: Meeting you is like
a boat with oarsmen too weak,
rowing up the stream,
my self struggling against
the channel's current, it seems
Meaning: Meeting you feels like a boat whose oarsmen are too weak, rowing up against the channel, my very self pressing against the current.
Commentary: Book Eight Love Poems II 511

Meeting the beloved, the poet says, feels like rowing up a channel in a boat whose oarsmen are too weak to make headway. Punning on mio, the channel and myself, the poem overlays a love that will not go as one wishes on a boat unable to advance against the current.
The author, Kinzane, is Fujiwara no Kinzane. A son of Fujiwara no Sanesue, he served as Master of the Crown Prince's Household and rose to Provisional Major Counselor, and was one of the poets of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequences.

First line, 'au koto wa', means meeting my beloved. Poems 501 and 504 in this book begin with the same line.
Second line, 'funabito yowami', means since the oarsmen are weak, an adjective stem with mi expressing a cause.
Third line, 'kogu fune no', means the boat they row.
Fourth line, 'mio sakanoboru', is a pivot word in which mio means both the channel boats pass through and myself, left in kana.
Final line, 'kokochi koso sure', means so it feels, the particle koso answered by sure, the perfective form of su.
Author: Fujiwara no Kinzane
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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