Masokagami minume no ura wa momofune no sugite yukubeki hama naranaku ni

まそ鏡敏馬の浦は百舟の
過ぎて行くべき浜ならなくに

Roma-ji: Masokagami minume no ura wa momofune no sugite yukubeki hama naranaku ni
English Translation: Clear as a mirror,
the bay of Minume—
for a hundred ships
simply to pass by and leave,
it is no such beach, and yet
Meaning: Minume Bay is not a beach that a hundred ships should simply pass by and leave behind.
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 1066

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two envoys"
The poem says that Minume Bay is not a beach that many ships should simply sail past. The long poem immediately before it (1065) is titled "A poem composed when passing Minume Bay"; it praises Minume Bay, fixed since the age of the god Yachihoko as a harbor where many ships put in, with scenes of the bay's waves stirring in the morning wind, jewel-weed drifting in on the evening waves, and a beach of pure white sand, and closes with "the pure white beach that will be remembered through a hundred ages." Taking up "passing" in the title of the long poem, this envoy praises the beauty of the bay in the form of regret at sailing on without stopping.
Minume Bay is said to correspond to the shore of what is now Nada Ward, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, and it was a harbor on the sea route westward from Naniwa.
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.

Minume Bay is also sung of as "Minume Bay" in Yamabe no Akahito's long poem, 946 of this book, so poems on the same bay appear twice in the book. In addition, this poem's "hundred ships" corresponds to "a thousand ships" in the next poem, 1067, multiplying the number to show on a different scale the busy bay where many ships come and go.
The first line, "Clear as a mirror," renders "masokagami," a clear, polished mirror, which from the act of "seeing" (mi-) into a mirror serves as a pillow word for Minume.
The second line, "the bay of Minume," names the bay being praised and singles it out with "wa."
The third line, "for a hundred ships," renders "momofune no," many ships, taking up "the harbor where a hundred ships put in" in the long poem.
The fourth line, "simply to pass by and leave," means "should pass on by," with "-beki," the attributive form of "beshi," expressing what is proper or fitting.
The final line, "it is no such beach, and yet," means "though it is not such a beach." "Nakuni" is the ku-form of the negative "zu" with "ni" added, and it closes with an exclamation of regret at passing by.
Author: Tanabe no Sakimaro
Source: Manyoshu
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