Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Minamoto no Shigeyuki

Meaning

Like the waves crashing against the rocks in the fierce wind, I alone am broken to pieces by this sorrow.

Commentary

The image is precisely one-sided: the waves are driven by violent wind and crash against the rocks, shattering completely. The rocks feel nothing; only the waves are destroyed. This is the speaker's situation in love — his longing is entirely unrequited. He alone suffers; the object of his feelings remains unmoved, as solid and indifferent as stone.

Minamoto no Shigeyuki was a mid-Heian court official whose career was marked by political misfortune, including demotion and exile. Whether or not this personal history colored his poetry, this poem has an intensity that goes beyond mere convention. The image of the wave shattering alone is one of the most kinetically vivid in the entire Hyakunin Isshu.

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