Uchiso o omi no ōkimi ama nare ya irago no shima no tamamo karimasu

打ち麻を麻続の王海人なれや
伊良虞の島の玉藻刈ります

Roma-ji: Uchiso o omi no ōkimi ama nare ya irago no shima no tamamo karimasu
English Translation: Is he a fisher,
Prince Omi of the hemp
beaten soft and fine,
that on Irago's island
he must cut the jeweled weed?
Meaning: Is Prince Omi a fisherman, then? He is not—and yet there he is on the island of Irago, cutting the seaweed.
Commentary: Book One Miscellaneous Poems 23

Headnote: "A poem composed in lament by a contemporary when Prince Omi was exiled to the island of Irago in Ise Province"
A contemporary's lament for Prince Omi, exiled to the island of Irago and living by cutting seaweed like a fisherman. It grieves at the gulf between a noble prince and the life of shore folk that has been forced upon him, and offers sympathy. The next poem, 24, is said to be the prince's reply, and the two form a pair. The left note, citing the Nihon Shoki, says that in the fourth month of 675, the fourth year of Emperor Tenmu, Prince Omi was exiled to Inaba for a crime, and suspects that later people mistakenly recorded the island of Irago in Ise on the strength of the poem's wording.
The headnote names the author only as "a person of the time," and no name survives. The Prince Omi of the poem was a member of the imperial family of the third rank who was exiled for a crime.

The first line, uchiso o, "hemp beaten soft," is a pillow word for Omi, since hemp was spun and twisted (umu) into thread.
The second line names Prince Omi, the exile. Placing his name after the pillow word, it focuses on his plight.
In the third line, nare is the perfective form of the copula nari, and ya a rhetorical question: "is he a fisherman? Surely not." The poem breaks here.
The fourth line names the island of Irago, thought to lie at the mouth of Ise Bay, near present-day Cape Irago in Aichi Prefecture. Poem 42 in this book also speaks of "the waters by Irago's isle," sharing the place name.
In the last line, tama is a praising prefix and masu an honorific auxiliary: "he is cutting the seaweed." Adding honorifics to a fisherman's labor sharpens the contrast with his noble rank. It corresponds to the last line of the next poem, "I cut the seaweed to eat."
Source: Manyoshu
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