風をいたみ

岩うつ波の

おのれのみ

くだけて物を

思ふ頃かな

みなもとのしげゆき

かぜをいたみ

いわうつなみの

おのれのみ

くだけてものを

おもうころかな

Minamoto no Shigeyuki

Like the storm-torn surf

Crashing on a rock,

This is what is left of me,

My memories of old

Shattered to the core!

Kuniyoshi

Minamoto no Shigeyuki (? - 1000), was an early Heian waka poet and nobleman, who belongs to the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. His poems were collected in the Shigeyukishu and he was also said to be a great calligrapher. He knew Kanemori (poem 40) and Sanekata (poem 51).

作者略伝と語釈

Tosa school - Shigeyuki

The poet compares his feelings of love with a wave that crashes uselessly on an unmoveable rock. No woodcut by Hokusai is known.

Itami (‘damage’) in the first line can also mean ‘pain’, and utsu (‘to beat’) also has a stronger meaning of ‘destroy’. So there is the objective content of waves beating on a rock, but with an implication of personal hurt. There is an alliteration in itami, nami (waves), and nomi (‘only’ or ‘you’).