I decided to post this one after Valentine’s Day for all those whose plans didn’t go well. You’re not alone, as we shall see.

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
風をいたみ	Kaze wo itami	Waves that beat against the rocks,
いはわうつ波の	Iwa utsu nami no	fanned by a fierce wind—
おのれのみ	Onore nomi	it is I alone
くだけて物を	Kudakete mono wo	who breaks, those times
おもふう頃かな	Omou koro kana	when I think of her!

The author, Minamoto no Shigeyuki (源重之, ? – 1001) was a well-associated poet who knew Kanemori (poem 40) and Sanekata (poem 51) according to Mostow. He is the last of the Thirty Six Immortals of Poetry featured in the blog (not all 36 are in the Hyakunin Isshu).

The poem, like poem 45 and poem 19, features the popular theme of a cold lover. For some reason, I had a difficult time understanding the analogy of this poem the first time, but Shigeyuki is comparing himself to the waves that crash on the shore. His lover is like the rocks that are unmoved by the waves.

It turns out though that this poem was actually composed for a poetry game involving a hundred-poem sequence “when Retired Emperor Reizei was still called the crown prince” according to Mostow. Such poetry games were popular in the late Heian Period, and influenced people like Fujiwara no Teika and the Hyakunin Isshu anthology.