Okitsushima ariso no tamamo shiohi michi ikakuri yukaba omōemu kamo

沖つ島荒磯の玉藻潮干満ち
い隠りゆかば思ほえむかも

Roma-ji: Okitsushima ariso no tamamo shiohi michi ikakuri yukaba omōemu kamo
English Translation: The island offshore—
the jewel-weed of its rough shore,
when the ebb flows in
and hides it from my sight,
how I shall miss it then
Meaning: The lovely seaweed on the rugged shore of the island in the offing—when the ebbing tide flows back in and hides it from view, how I shall long for it then.
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 918

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two envoys"
This poem says that the lovely seaweed now visible on the rugged shore of the island in the offing will surely be missed once the tide comes in and hides it beneath the sea. By cherishing the beauty of the seaweed that can be seen only at low tide, it praises the scenery of Tamatsushima.
The long poem immediately before (917) is titled "A poem composed by Yamabe no Sukune Akahito when the Emperor made a progress to the province of Kii on the fifth day of the tenth month of winter in the first year of Jinki," and was written while accompanying the newly enthroned Emperor Shōmu on his progress to Kii in the tenth month of Jinki 1 (724). The long poem praises Tamatsushima, the island in the offing seen from Saikano, as a place revered since the age of the gods. Tamatsushima lies in what is now Wakaura in Wakayama City, and was then a small island in the sea.
The left note reads: "The above did not record the year and month, but was said to have been composed while accompanying the progress to Tamatsushima. Therefore the year and month of the progress have now been ascertained and noted, and the poems are recorded here." This shows that the original source gave no date and said only that the poems were composed on the progress to Tamatsushima, so the compiler looked up the date of the progress and entered it in the headnote.
The poet, Yamabe no Akahito, was a court poet of the early Nara period who accompanied imperial progresses, chiefly in the reign of Emperor Shōmu, and left many poems. His rank and career are unknown, but he excelled in lucid poems of landscape, and the Japanese preface to the Kokin Wakashū names him alongside Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.

The two envoys trace the rising of the tide across two poems: this one imagines the seaweed disappearing as "the ebbing tide flows in," while the next poem, 919, depicts cranes flying as "the tide comes flowing in."
The first line, "The island offshore," takes up the "island in the offing" of the long poem and seems to refer to Tamatsushima. "Tsu" is an old attributive particle meaning "of."
The second line, "the jewel-weed of its rough shore," means the lovely seaweed growing on the wave-beaten rocks, with "tama" as an honorific. It takes up "gathering the jewel-weed" in the long poem.
The third line, "when the ebbing tide flows in," means when the sea returns to the rocks that the ebb had laid bare, taking up the long poem's "when the tide ebbs" and depicting the change from low tide to high.
In the fourth line, "and hides it from my sight," the "i-" is a prefix, and the phrase means "if it goes into hiding." The conditional "-ba" attached to the irrealis form imagines something that has not yet happened.
The final line, "how I shall miss it then," means "how it will come to my mind," and with the conjectural "mu" and the exclamatory "kamo" it anticipates the regret that will follow once the seaweed is lost from view.
Author: Yamabe no Akahito
Source: Manyoshu
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