Tamamo karu amaotomedomo mi ni yukamu funakaji mo gamo nami takaku tomo

玉藻刈る海人娘子ども見に行かむ
舟楫もがも波高くとも

Roma-ji: Tamamo karu amaotomedomo mi ni yukamu funakaji mo gamo nami takaku tomo
English Translation: Gathering jewel-weed,
the fisher girls out there—
that I might go and see them,
would I had a boat and oars,
however high the waves
Meaning: If only I had a boat and oars to go and see the fisher girls out there gathering jewel-weed—however high the waves might rise.
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 936

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two envoys"
This poem wishes for a boat and oars with which to go and see the fisher girls gathering jewel-weed, however high the waves may be. It expresses the poet's longing for the fisher girls on Awaji Island across the sea as a fervent wish to cross even the roughest waves.
The long poem immediately before (935) is titled "A poem composed by Kasa no Asomi Kanamura when the Emperor made a progress to Inamino in the province of Harima on the fifteenth day of the ninth month of autumn in the third year," and was written while accompanying Emperor Shōmu on his progress to Inamino in Harima in the ninth month of Jinki 3 (726). The long poem tells of hearing that at Matsuho Bay on Awaji Island, seen across from the harbour of Nakisumi, there are fisher girls who gather jewel-weed and burn seaweed for salt, and laments with longing that, having no boat or oars, the poet has no means of going to see them.
The envoy takes up the long poem's closing words, "having no boat or oars," and turns the lament that there is no boat into the wish that there might be one. By setting the heart on the people of the land visited on the progress, the poem praises that land.
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 "fisher girls" of this poem are the same as the "fisher girls" in the first line of 930 in this book, so the poems of both the Naniwa and the Inamino progresses place the young fisherwomen at the heart of the seaside scene.
The first line, "Gathering jewel-weed," means cutting the lovely seaweed and modifies "fisher girls" that follows. It takes up the long poem's "gathering jewel-weed."
The second line, "the fisher girls out there," means the young women of the fisherfolk, with "-domo" as a plural suffix.
The third line, "that I might go and see them," uses "mu" in its attributive form to modify "boat and oars" that follows, meaning the boat with which one would go to see them.
The fourth line, "would I had a boat and oars," uses "mogamo," a final particle of wish. It turns the long poem's "having no boat or oars" into a wish, and the sense breaks after this line.
The final line, "however high the waves," uses "tomo" as a concessive conditional. Added by inversion to the wish in the fourth line, it shows the strength of the desire to go whatever the obstacles.
Author: Kasa no Kanamura
Source: Manyoshu
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