Tarashihime kami no mikoto no na tsurasu to mitatashi serishi ishi o tare miki

足姫神の命の魚釣らすと
み立たしせりし石を誰れ見き

Roma-ji: Tarashihime kami no mikoto no na tsurasu to mitatashi serishi ishi o tare miki
English Translation: Tarashihime,
that divine and sacred lady,
to fish for her catch
once stood upon a rock there —
who has ever seen that stone?
Meaning: Who has ever seen the rock on which the divine Tarashihime stood when she went to fish?
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 869

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Okura, in awe and with bowed head, respectfully addresses you"
The poet asks who has ever seen the rock on which Empress Jingū stood to fish. Naming a site of the Jingū legend in Matsura, he lets his own wish to see that rock show through. The legend that the Empress fished for sweetfish in the Tamashima River to divine the outcome of her campaign appears in the Kojiki and the Nihon shoki.
After the poem, a variant introduced as "one version says" gives the third line as "to fish for sweetfish." Here the main text is followed.
In the letter of the headnote, Okura writes that he has heard that governors and the Governor-General tour their jurisdictions according to law to observe local customs, and that because the many thoughts in his heart are hard to speak aloud, he wishes respectfully to relieve the gloom within through three poems. They are thought to lament that Okura could not accompany Tabito when he toured Matsura. The left note says they were respectfully presented by Yamanoue no Okura, provincial governor of Chikuzen, on the eleventh day of the seventh month of Tenpyō 2.
The poet, Yamanoue no Okura, was an official who went to Tang China as a junior secretary with the embassy appointed in Taihō 1. After his return he served as Governor of Hōki and in the household of the Crown Prince, and late in the Jinki era he was posted to Tsukushi as Governor of Chikuzen. He is known for poems rooted in everyday life, on the sufferings of human existence, love for family, and poverty, written against a background of learning in Chinese classics and Buddhist scripture.

First line, "Tarashihime": Okinaga Tarashihime, that is, Empress Jingū, the same Empress as in the calming-stone legend of 814.
Second line, "kami no mikoto no": "the divine and noble one," praising the Empress as a deity.
Third line, "na tsurasu to": "su" is honorific: "when she deigned to fish."
Fourth line, "mitatashi serishi": "where she stood," doubling the honorifics "mi" and "shi" to show deep reverence.
Fifth line, "ishi o tare miki": "ki" marks the past: who has seen that stone? The poem closes on the question.
Author: Yamanoue no Okura
Source: Manyoshu
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