Wata no hara yasoshima kakete kogiidenu to hito ni wa tsugeyo ama no tsuribune - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

わたの原八十島かけて漕ぎ出でぬと
人には告げよ海人の釣舟

Roma-ji: Wata no hara yasoshima kakete kogiidenu to hito ni wa tsugeyo ama no tsuribune
English Translation: Across the wide sea,
making for the eighty isles,
I have rowed away—
so tell the ones I left behind,
O fishing boats of the fisherfolk.
Meaning: Tell the one I left in the capital that I have rowed out across the broad sea, bound for its countless islands. Carry that word for me, you little fishing boats.
Commentary: Book Nine Travel Poems 407

Headnote: "When he was exiled to the province of Oki, as he boarded the boat to set out, he sent this to someone in the capital"
This poem was sent to someone left behind in the capital as the poet sailed into exile on Oki. He entrusts the image of himself rowing out onto the open sea as a message to the fishing boats nearby, and the verse keeps its sorrow in check with a firm, taut rhythm.
The headnote tells us that Takamura sent this to someone in the capital as he departed for exile. Appointed vice-envoy to Tang China, he quarreled with the chief envoy Fujiwara no Tsunetsugu, refused to board on the pretext of illness, and angered Retired Emperor Saga, who banished him to Oki.
Where the preceding poem, 406, longs for home from a land beyond the sea, this one is the voice of a man being sent away from the capital across the sea; both are sea poems by men connected with the embassies to China, set side by side. It is also included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
The author, "Ono no Takamura no Ason," is Ono no Takamura, a courtier and Chinese-style poet of the early Heian period. He was later pardoned, returned to the capital, and rose to the post of consultant. Renowned for his learning, he was also called "the wild man of Ono" for his unconventional conduct.

The first line, "the plain of the sea," means the broad ocean. It pairs with "the plain of heaven" that opens the preceding poem, and the view shifts from the breadth of the sky to the breadth of the sea.
In the second line, "yasoshima" means countless islands and "kakete" means heading toward; together they show how far the sea road to Oki stretches.
In the third line, "nu" is the perfective auxiliary: the message is that he has already rowed away.
The fourth line, "tell the people," is an imperative entrusting a message to those left in the capital, and the poem breaks here. "People" may mean one dear person or the folk of the capital in general.
The last line, "O fishing boats of the fisherfolk," is an address ending on a noun. Asking a wordless fishing boat to carry his message reveals a loneliness with no one else to trust.
Author: Ono no Takamura
Source: Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Ama no hara furisake mireba kasuga naru mikasa no yama ni ideshi tsuki kamo
Next Poem: Miyako idete kyō mika no hara izumigawa kawakaze samushi koromo kaseyama