Matsuragawa kawa no se hayami kurenai no mo no suso nurete ayu ka tsururamu

松浦川川の瀬早み紅の
裳の裾濡れて鮎か釣るらむ

Roma-ji: Matsuragawa kawa no se hayami kurenai no mo no suso nurete ayu ka tsururamu
English Translation: The Matsura River,
its shallows running swift, and so
with their crimson skirts
wet along the very hems,
are they fishing for trout now?
Meaning: The shallows of the Matsura River run swift; I wonder if the girls are fishing for sweetfish now, the hems of their crimson skirts wet.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 861

Headnote: "Three poems composed later in response by a later person; the old Governor-General"
The poet wonders whether, the Matsura's shallows running swift, the girls are now fishing for sweetfish with the hems of their crimson skirts wet. From the standpoint of a later person outside the tale, he imagines the girls of distant Tamashima.
The headnote reads "Three poems composed later in response by a later person," and the note "the old Governor-General" shows that Ōtomo no Tabito wrote them afterward in response to the poems of the Matsura River tale. Adopting the stance not of a character in the tale but of someone who heard of it later, he plays with the fiction.
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, "Matsuragawa": the same first line as 855, signaling a response to the tale's poems.
Second line, "kawa no se hayami": "mi" gives the reason: because the shallows are swift. It answers 855's "its shallows glittering."
Third line, "kurenai no": crimson skirts, adding vivid color to the girls' figures.
Fourth line, "mo no suso nurete": takes up 855's last line, "the hem of her skirt is wet," recast as something imagined.
Fifth line, "ayu ka tsururamu": "ka" poses a question and "ramu" conjectures about something happening now out of sight, closing with thoughts of girls far away.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito
Source: Manyoshu
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