Tamamo karu karani no shima ni shimami suru u ni shimo are ya ie omowazu aramu

玉藻刈る唐荷の島に島廻する
鵜にしもあれや家思はずあらむ

Roma-ji: Tamamo karu karani no shima ni shimami suru u ni shimo are ya ie omowazu aramu
English Translation: Where jeweled weed is reaped,
by the island of Karani,
circling round the isle—
am I a cormorant, then,
that I should not think of home?
Meaning: Am I some cormorant circling the island of Karani, where the jeweled seaweed is gathered, that I could keep from thinking of home?
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 943

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three envoys"
This poem says that a cormorant circling the island of Karani might well be free of care, but the poet, being human, cannot help thinking of home. The long poem immediately before it (942) is titled "A poem composed by Yamabe no Sukune Akahito when passing the island of Karani," and laments that as the poet, parted from his wife, sails on past Nojima in Awaji and looks toward home between the islands of Karani, the blue hills cannot be seen, screened off by white clouds.
Taking up the lament of the long poem, this envoy fixes on the cormorants fishing heedlessly around the island before the poet's eyes, and by comparing himself with them brings out the depth of the traveler's feeling for the home he has left. The island of Karani is thought to be the cluster of small islands off Murotsu in Mitsu, Tatsuno City, Hyōgo Prefecture.
The poet, Yamabe no Akahito, was a court poet of the early Nara period who accompanied Emperor Shōmu on his progresses and left many poems of praise. He excelled at poems that depict natural scenery with clarity and calm, and later generations revered him, alongside Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, as a sage of poetry.

The first line, "Where jeweled weed is reaped," speaks of the fisherfolk cutting fine seaweed and works like a pillow word for places on the shore. It shares this very phrase with "the fisher maidens who reap jeweled weed" in 936 of this book, linking the poems on the coast of Harima.
The second line, "by the island of Karani," refers to the same island as "the island of Karani" in the long poem. Though written with different characters, the place name is repeated in the envoy.
The third line, "circling round the isle," describes the cormorants swimming around the island's lee in search of fish.
In the fourth line, "am I a cormorant, then," "shimo" is emphatic and "ya" is a rhetorical binding particle, meaning "am I a cormorant? I am not." The particle "ya" is concluded by "aramu" in the final line.
The final line, "that I should not think of home?" means "how could I not think of home?" and closes the rhetorical question begun by "ya" in the fourth line. Like "my home comes to mind" in 940 of this book, it places the traveler's longing for home in the final line.
Author: Yamabe no Akahito
Source: Manyoshu
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