Tōtsuhito matsura no kawa ni wakayu tsuru imo ga tamoto o ware koso makame

遠つ人松浦の川に若鮎釣る
妹が手本を我れこそ巻かめ

Roma-ji: Tōtsuhito matsura no kawa ni wakayu tsuru imo ga tamoto o ware koso makame
English Translation: Waiting for one far,
in the river of Matsura
fishing for young trout —
my darling's arms, it is I
who will take them for my pillow
Meaning: It is I, and no other, who would pillow my head on the arms of my darling fishing for young sweetfish in the Matsura River.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 857

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three more poems sent by the wandering guest"
The poet declares that it is he, and no one else, who would pillow his head on the arms of the girl fishing for young sweetfish in the Matsura River. As the last of the wandering guest's three poems, it states plainly a proposal and the wish to sleep together.
"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, "tōtsuhito": "one who is far," a pillow word for Matsura through the sense of waiting ("matsu").
Second line, "Matsura no kawa ni": the Matsura River, stage of the tale.
Third line, "wakayu tsuru": six syllables, one more than the norm, picturing the girl fishing for young spring sweetfish.
Fourth line, "imo ga tamoto o": "tamoto" here is the arm, pillowing on which means sleeping together.
Fifth line, "ware koso makame": "maku" means to use as a pillow; "koso" is resolved by "me." It is I and no other, closing with a strengthened resolve to court her.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito (attributed)
Source: Manyoshu
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