Ami no ura ni funanori su ramu otomera ga tamamo no suso ni shio mitsu ramu ka

嗚呼見の浦に舟乗りすらむをとめらが
玉裳の裾に潮満つらむか

Roma-ji: Ami no ura ni funanori su ramu otomera ga tamamo no suso ni shio mitsu ramu ka
English Translation: Along Ami Bay
the maidens must be boating;
round their jeweled skirts,
about the trailing hems,
is the tide now rising high?
Meaning: The young women must be out boating on Ami Bay—is the tide rising now around the hems of their lovely skirts?
Commentary: Book One Miscellaneous Poems 40

Headnote: "A poem composed by Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro, who remained in the capital when the Empress journeyed to Ise Province"
Staying behind in the capital rather than joining Empress Jitō's journey to Ise, Hitomaro imagines the court ladies in all their finery, boating on Ami Bay. Picturing the tide wetting the hems of their lovely skirts, he vividly paints a distant scene he cannot see. The left note, citing the Nihon Shoki, records that in the third month of 692, the sixth year of Shuchō, the counselor Miwa no Takechimaro took off his cap of office to protest that the journey would hinder farm work, but the Empress did not heed him and went to Ise. This and the following two poems form a sequence in which Hitomaro, left in the capital, thinks of the royal party.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, and he is the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū. Though his rank appears to have been low, he left many grand and dignified poems, above all long poems, and later ages revered him as a "saint of poetry."

The first line names Ami Bay in Ise Province, thought to be near present-day Toba in Mie Prefecture. The line is hypermetric and names the destination.
In the second line, ramu expresses present conjecture: "they must be boating now." It imagines a far-off scene from the capital.
The third line, otomera ga, refers to the young court ladies on the journey; ra marks the plural.
In the fourth line, tama is a praising prefix: "the hems of their lovely skirts." Mo was a skirt worn from the waist down, showing the elegant attire of the ladies.
In the last line, ramu is present conjecture and ka a question: "is the tide rising now?" Repeating ramu in the second and last lines, it heightens the longing toward an unseen scene.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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