Matsura naru tamashimagawa ni ayu tsuru to tataseru kora ga ieji shirazu mo

松浦なる玉島川に鮎釣ると
立たせる子らが家道知らずも

Roma-ji: Matsura naru tamashimagawa ni ayu tsuru to tataseru kora ga ieji shirazu mo
English Translation: In Matsura lies
the Tamashima River, where
fishing for sweetfish
stand the girls, but the way
to their home I do not know
Meaning: The girls stand fishing for sweetfish in the Tamashima River in Matsura, but I do not know the road to their home.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 856

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three more poems sent by the wandering guest"
The poet laments that he does not know the path to the home of the girls fishing in the Tamashima River. Though told in their reply that their home is upstream, he expresses the frustration of not knowing the way to visit.
"Wandering guest" in the headnote means a traveler drifting like mugwort, the author's humble name for himself as narrator of the preface.
This belongs to the sequence that begins with "Preface on an Excursion to the Matsura River." The preface tells how the author, wandering by the pools of Tamashima in Matsura, met some girls fishing whose beauty was like that of immortal maidens; they answered that they were fishermen's children with neither village nor home, yet asked to be joined with him until old age. It is a fictional tale that borrows the conceits of the Chinese romance of the immortals, You xian ku. It is most commonly attributed to Ōtomo no Tabito, though some ascribe it to Yamanoue no Okura.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was the son of the Major Counselor Ōtomo no Yasumaro and the father of Ōtomo no Yakamochi. Late in the Jinki era he went down to Tsukushi as Governor-General of Dazaifu, returned to the capital in Tenpyō 2 as Major Counselor, and died the following year. Versed in Chinese letters and Daoist thought, he formed a literary circle at Dazaifu with Yamanoue no Okura and others, known as the Tsukushi poetic circle.

First line, "Matsura naru": "which is in Matsura," giving the location.
Second line, "Tamashimagawa ni": the river where the girls fish, a more specific name for the preceding poem's "Matsura River."
Third line, "ayu tsuru to": the same line as the third of the preceding poem, linking the three.
Fourth line, "tataseru kora ga": taking up "tataseru imo ga," but "kora" refers to the several girls.
Fifth line, "ieji shirazu mo": "ieji" is the road to a home, and "mo" exclaims. Against the girls' answer in 854, "we have a home," he replies that he does not know the way.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito (attributed)
Source: Manyoshu
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