Hisakata no Ama no Sagume ga iwafune no hateshi Takatsu wa asenikeru kamo

ひさかたの天の探女が岩船の
泊てし高津はあせにけるかも

Roma-ji: Hisakata no Ama no Sagume ga iwafune no hateshi Takatsu wa asenikeru kamo
English Translation: Of the far heavens,
the goddess Sagume's boat
of rock, it is said,
moored at Takatsu, now
shallow and faded away.
Meaning: Takatsu, where the heavenly goddess Sagume once moored her rock boat, has grown shallow and forsaken.
Commentary: Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 292

Headnote: "Four poems by Tsuno no Maro"
This is the first of Tsuno no Maro's four poems. It laments that Takatsu in Naniwa, where legend says the goddess Ama no Sagume descended in a heavenly rock boat, has become shallow and desolate. Setting the splendid legend of the age of gods against the declined harbor of the present, it evokes the passing of years. The legend appears in a surviving fragment of the Settsu Fudoki.
Tsuno no Maro's four poems form a sequence on the shores of Settsu—Takatsu, Mitsu, and Suminoe in Naniwa.
Nothing is known of the poet, Tsuno no Maro.

First line "Of the far heavens" is hisakata no, a pillow word for "heaven."
Second line "the goddess Sagume's": Ama no Sagume is a goddess of the myths in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki.
Third line "boat of rock": iwafune is the sturdy boat on which gods descend from heaven.
Fourth line "moored at Takatsu": hatsu means to reach port and shi is the past attributive. Takatsu was a harbor of Naniwa, thought to be in today's Chūō Ward, Osaka.
Fifth line "now shallow and faded away": asu means to become shallow or decline, and kamo seals the lament for the legendary harbor.
Author: Tsuno no Maro
Source: Manyoshu
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