Inishie no ama ya keburi to narinu ramu hitome mo mienu Shiogama no ura - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いにしへの海人や煙となりぬらむ
人目も見えぬ塩竈の浦

Roma-ji: Inishie no ama ya keburi to narinu ramu hitome mo mienu Shiogama no ura
English Translation: Those fishers of old—
have they turned into the smoke
of the fires they burned?
Not a soul is to be seen
on the Bay of Shiogama.
Meaning: Have the fisherfolk of long ago turned into the smoke of their salt fires? Not a single person can be seen on the Bay of Shiogama.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1717

Headnote: "On a folding screen painted with the Bay of Shiogama."
This is the second of the poems on bays and shores. The fisherfolk who once burned salt here have perhaps turned into its smoke and vanished, for not a soul is seen on the Bay of Shiogama. According to the headnote, it was composed on seeing the Bay of Shiogama painted on a folding screen, and it turns thoughts to people long gone in a picture empty of figures.
The author, "Ichijō-in Empress," is Fujiwara no Teishi. A daughter of Fujiwara no Michitaka, she became consort and later empress to Emperor Ichijō. She is known as the mistress whom Sei Shōnagon served.
The Bay of Shiogama is a shore in Mutsu Province, in present-day Shiogama City, Miyagi Prefecture, a famous poetic place known for the smoke of the fires where fisherfolk burned seaweed for salt.

The first line, "inishie no," means "of long ago." She sees past time laid over the painted scene.
The second line, "ama ya keburi to," means "the fisherfolk turned into the smoke of their salt fires." "Ya" is a particle of question, asking why the fishers are absent. It also echoes the poems on fisherfolk that began with 1702.
The third line, "narinu ramu," closes the kakari-musubi of "ya" with the attributive form of the present conjectural "ramu." It supposes "have they become so?" and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "hitome mo mienu," means "not a soul to be seen." The absence of figures in the painting is taken as the fishers having turned to smoke.
The last line, "Shiogama no ura," ends on a noun with the name of the poetic place, closing the poem. Taking up the "bays" of the preceding poem, poems on the shore continue.
Author: Fujiwara no Teishi
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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