Arigayou naniwa no miya wa umi chikami ama otomera ga noreru fune miyu

あり通ふ難波の宮は海近み
海人娘子らが乗れる舟見ゆ

Roma-ji: Arigayou naniwa no miya wa umi chikami ama otomera ga noreru fune miyu
English Translation: Ever visited,
the palace of Naniwa,
so near to the sea,
that the fisher-maidens' boats
as they row are seen from here
Meaning: The palace of Naniwa, where our lord comes again and again, is so near the sea that one can see the boats in which the fisher-maidens ride.
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 1063

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two envoys"
The poem says that because the Naniwa palace, where the sovereign comes again and again, is near the sea, the boats of the fisher-maidens can be seen. The long poem immediately before it (1062) is titled "A poem composed at the Naniwa palace"; it praises the Naniwa palace, where the sovereign comes again and again, with scenes of the pure beach facing the sea where jewels are gathered, the plovers calling their mates on the sandbars, and the cries of cranes echoing among the reeds, and closes with "the Ajifu palace, which I can never tire of beholding." Taking up the long poem's "lying by the sea," this envoy praises the charm unique to a seaside palace through the scene of fishermen's boats seen close at hand.
The Naniwa palace stood in what is now Chūō Ward, Osaka; it was rebuilt in the reign of Emperor Shōmu and was briefly made the imperial capital in Tenpyō 16 (744).
The twenty-one poems from 1047 through 1067, the last poem of the book, are covered by the closing left note: "The above twenty-one poems appear in the Tanabe no Sakimaro Collection." According to this note they were taken from the Tanabe no Sakimaro Collection, and they are thought to be Sakimaro's own compositions.
The poet, Tanabe no Sakimaro, was a poet of the mid-Nara period; in Tenpyō 20 (748) he served as a clerk of the Office of Sake Brewing and acted as an envoy for the Minister of the Left, Tachibana no Moroe. He is regarded as one of the representative poets of the last phase of the Man'yōshū, carrying on the tradition of ceremonial long poems at court.

After the envoys lamenting the ruin of the Kuni capital (1060 and 1061 of this book), poems praising the Naniwa palace are placed, so that the arrangement turns from ruin back to praise. The conceit of praising a palace site by the sight of fishermen's boats also shares the words "fisher," "boat" and "are seen" with Ōtomo no Yakamochi's 1033, "they must be the fishers of Shima, riding in small boats of Kumano, rowing out to sea, I see."
The first line, "Ever visited," means continually visited, referring to the sovereign's frequent progresses. It is the same word as in Yamabe no Akahito's Yoshino poem, 1006, "coming again and again to the Yoshino palace," so that both the Yoshino palace and the Naniwa palace are praised as palaces the sovereign visits again and again.
The second line, "the palace of Naniwa," names the palace being praised and singles it out with "wa."
The third line, "so near to the sea," means "because the sea is near," "chikami" being the -mi construction of "chikashi" expressing a reason. It is the same kind of phrase as "the river is near" and "the mountains are near" in the long poem praising the Kuni capital (1050), praising a palace by the sea as against a capital of river and mountains.
The fourth line, "that the fisher-maidens' boats," refers to the daughters of those who live by fishing, depicting the life of the sea near the palace.
The final line, "as they row are seen from here," means "the boats they ride in can be seen." "-Ru" is the attributive form of the continuative auxiliary "ri," and the line closes firmly on "miyu," "is seen," presenting the sea scene viewed from the palace.
Author: Tanabe no Sakimaro
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Saku hana no iro wa kawarazu momoshiki no ōmiyabito zo tachikawarikeru
Next Poem: Shio fureba ashibe ni sawaku shiratazu no tsuma yobu koe wa miya mo todoro ni