Ōbune ni kaji shi mo aranamu kimi nashi ni kazuki seme ya mo nami tatazu tomo

大船に楫しもあらなむ君なしに
潜きせめやも波立たずとも

Roma-ji: Ōbune ni kaji shi mo aranamu kimi nashi ni kazuki seme ya mo nami tatazu tomo
English Translation: For the great ship
I wish that there were oars;
with you not here,
would I ever dive at all,
even though no waves are rising?
Meaning: I wish the great ship had its oars—but with you away, would I ever dive? Never, even if the waves were calm.
Commentary: Book Seven Miscellaneous Poems 1254

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Question and Answer"
Replying in the fisherman's voice to the preceding poem, it says: with you away, would I ever dive, even if the waves were calm? It is read as a woman's vow that she will not change her heart while her lover is away.
It forms a question-and-answer pair with the preceding poem, answering "while I am not there" with "with you not here" and "do not dive" with "would I ever dive," and sharing the last line "even though no waves are rising." The left note says, "The two poems above are on fishermen." It comes from the Old Poetry Collection. The poet is unknown.

The first line, "For the great ship," names a large vessel.
In the second line, "namu" expresses a wish addressed to another: "may there be oars." The poem pauses here.
The third line, "with you not here," answers "while I am not there" in the third line of the preceding poem.
In the fourth line, "meya mo" is rhetorical: "would I dive? Never." It answers "do not dive into the sea" in the preceding poem.
The final line, "even though no waves are rising," is the same as the last line of the preceding poem.
Source: Manyoshu
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