Watatsumi no moteru shiratama mimaku hori chitabi zo norishi kazuki suru ama

海神の持てる白玉見まく欲り
千たびぞ告りし潜きする海人

Roma-ji: Watatsumi no moteru shiratama mimaku hori chitabi zo norishi kazuki suru ama
English Translation: The white pearl held
by the sea god of the deep,
longing so to see it,
a thousand times he spoke his prayer,
the fisherman who dives
Meaning: Longing to see the white pearl the sea god keeps, a thousand times he voiced his prayer—the fisherman who dives beneath the waves.
Commentary: Book Seven Allegorical Poems 1302

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Jewels"
Longing to see the white pearl held by the sea god, the diving fisherman voiced his prayer a thousand times. The sea god stands for the girl's parent and the white pearl for the girl, and with the diving fisherman representing the suitor, the poem is taken to express how often he begged the parent to let him meet her.
It is the fourth poem of the series on jewels and forms a pair with the next poem, 1303, which takes it up and continues that though the fisherman speaks, he cannot win the sea god's heart. The third line onward, "longing so to see it, a thousand times he spoke his prayer, the fisherman who dives," is the same as in poem 1318 in this book. According to the left note it comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection.

The first line, "the sea god," is the same word as in the first line of the preceding poem.
The second line, "The white pearl held," stands for the daughter her parent cherishes.
In the third line, "mimaku" is the nominal form of "mimu": "longing to see." The same line appears in poem 1318 in this book.
The fourth line, "a thousand times he spoke his prayer," is a kakari-musubi construction in which "zo" is answered by the attributive "shi," and the poem pauses here; the same line appears in poem 1318.
The final line, "the fisherman who dives," names the subject by inversion and ends on a noun; it is taken up in the opening of the next poem and is the same as the last line of poem 1318.
Source: Manyoshu
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