Shika no ama no shio yaku keburi kaze o itami tachi wa noborade yama ni tanabiku - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

志賀の海人の塩焼く煙風をいたみ
立ちは上らで山にたなびく

Roma-ji: Shika no ama no shio yaku keburi kaze o itami tachi wa noborade yama ni tanabiku
English Translation: Fisherfolk of Shika—
the smoke from their burning salt,
for the wind so fierce,
does not rise up to the sky
but trails along the mountain.
Meaning: The smoke from the salt fires of the fisherfolk of Shika, driven by the fierce wind, does not climb into the sky but trails along the mountain.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1592

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the sequence on the salt-burning and fires of the fisherfolk. The smoke from the salt fires of the fisherfolk of Shika, driven by a fierce wind, does not rise into the sky but trails along the mountain. The headnote gives the topic as unknown and records nothing of the circumstances.
The author is "Anonymous," and no name has come down.
A poem of nearly the same form appears in Book Seven of the Man'yōshū.
Shika is the area of Shikanoshima in Chikuzen Province, in present-day Higashi Ward, Fukuoka. Since the Man'yōshū it has been sung together with fisherfolk who burn salt and cut seaweed.

The first line, "Shika no ama no," means "of the fisherfolk living at Shika." Taking up the "fisherfolk" of the preceding poem, it shifts the scene to the sea of Chikuzen.
The second line, "shio yaku keburi," is the smoke that rises when seawater is boiled down to make salt. After the "salt-burner" and "fires" of the earlier poems, attention now turns to the smoke.
The third line, "kaze o itami," means "because the wind is fierce." The suffix "mi" added to the stem of the adjective "itashi" expresses reason.
In the fourth line, "tachi wa noborade," "de" is a negative conjunctive particle, meaning "without rising." "Wa" emphasizes that it does not go upward.
The last line, "yama ni tanabiku," shows the smoke stretching sideways toward the mountain. The smoke that does not rise is captured as a scene trailing over the mountain.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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