Amaotome tananashi obune kogizurashi tabi no yadori ni kaji no oto kikoyu

海人娘女棚なし小舟漕ぎ出らし
旅の宿りに楫の音聞こゆ

Roma-ji: Amaotome tananashi obune kogizurashi tabi no yadori ni kaji no oto kikoyu
English Translation: The fisher girls
in their little plankless boats
seem to row out now—
at our lodging on the journey
I hear the sound of oars
Meaning: The fisher girls must be rowing out in their little plankless boats: here at our lodging on the journey, I can hear the sound of their oars.
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 930

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two envoys"
This poem reasons that the sound of oars reaching the travellers' lodging must mean the fisher girls have rowed out in their little boats. The poet, a man of the capital, pictures the life of the fisherfolk from the sound of oars heard at a lodging on the shore of Naniwa during the progress.
The long poem immediately before (928) is titled "A poem composed by Kasa no Asomi Kanamura when the Emperor made a progress to the palace at Naniwa in the tenth month of winter," and was written while accompanying Emperor Shōmu on his progress to Naniwa in the tenth month of Jinki 2 (725). The long poem praises how, in the land of Naniwa, which people had thought a faded old village, a palace has been raised high as the Nagara palace once was, and a capital has come into being with the many officials lodged in huts on the plain of Ajifu.
Following the preceding poem's praise of Naniwa become a capital, this poem voices the travel feelings of those accompanying the progress. The two envoys thus portray Naniwa both as the sovereign's capital and as a seaside place of travel.
The poet, Kasa no Kanamura, was a court poet of the early Nara period who accompanied the sovereigns from Empress Genshō to Emperor Shōmu on their progresses and left many poems of praise. Together with Yamabe no Akahito, he is regarded as a representative poet of the age.

The words "the sound of oars" in the lower verse are the same as in the opening of 934 in this book, "In the morning calm, the sound of oars," and both poems infer the fishers' boats from sound. The "fisher girls" also appear in the long poem 935 and in 936, "the fisher girls gathering jewel-weed," becoming a typical feature of the seaside scene in the progress poems.
The first line, "The fisher girls," means the young women of the fisherfolk who live by the sea.
The second line, "in their little plankless boats," means small boats without funadana, the boards fixed along the gunwales.
The third line, "seem to row out now," uses "rashi," an auxiliary of inference based on evidence. The sense breaks here, after the third line, and the evidence for the inference is given in the lower verse.
The fourth line, "at our lodging on the journey," means at the resting place on the journey of the progress, showing that the poet is a traveller.
The final line, "I hear the sound of oars," means the creak of the oars can be heard. The boats are not seen, only heard, and this becomes the basis for the inference in the third line, conveying the quiet of the lodging and the charm of the shore.
Author: Kasa no Kanamura
Source: Manyoshu
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