Matsuragawa tamashima no ura ni wakayu tsuru imora o miramu hito no tomoshisa

松浦川玉島の浦に若鮎釣る
妹らを見らむ人の羨しさ

Roma-ji: Matsuragawa tamashima no ura ni wakayu tsuru imora o miramu hito no tomoshisa
English Translation: The Matsura River,
by the bay of Tamashima,
fishing for young trout —
those who look upon the girls,
how I envy them their luck!
Meaning: How I envy those who must be watching the girls fishing for young sweetfish in the bay of Tamashima on the Matsura River!
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 863

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems composed later in response by a later person; the old Governor-General"
The poet envies those who must be watching the girls fish for young sweetfish in the bay of Tamashima. Following the preceding poem's lament at not being able to see, he closes the three poems with envy for those who can.
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 word that opens the response poems, drawing the sequence together.
Second line, "Tamashima no ura ni": the bay near the mouth of the Tamashima River.
Third line, "wakayu tsuru": six syllables, one more than the norm; the same line as the third of 857.
Fourth line, "imora o miramu": "who must be seeing the girls now," taking up "miramu" from the preceding poem.
Fifth line, "hito no tomoshisa": "tomoshi" means enviable, and the poem ends on its noun form.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito
Source: Manyoshu
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