Imo ga tame ware tama hirou okie naru tama yose mochiko okitsu shiranami

妹がため我れ玉拾ふ沖辺なる
玉寄せ持ち来沖つ白波

Roma-ji: Imo ga tame ware tama hirou okie naru tama yose mochiko okitsu shiranami
English Translation: For my darling's sake
I gather jewels on the shore—
those that lie offshore,
bring them here and cast them up,
O white waves of the open sea.
Meaning: For my wife's sake I am gathering jewels on the shore. You white waves of the open sea, bring the jewels that lie offshore and cast them up here for me.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1665

Headnote: "Two poems from the time when the sovereign who ruled the realm from the Okamoto Palace made a progress to the province of Kii"
On a shore far from home, a traveler gathers beautiful stones as a gift for the wife he left behind, and calls out to the white waves to carry the jewels lying offshore to the beach for him. His love for his wife takes the form of a simple appeal to nature.
According to the headnote, this is the first of two poems from a progress to Kii by the sovereign of the Okamoto Palace. The sovereign may be Jomei or Saimei, but records of a journey to the hot springs of Kii make Saimei the more likely. The left note says the author of these two poems is unknown, and they are thought to be by someone in the royal train.
Poem 1667 of this book is almost identical and is entered again as a poem from the progress to Kii in the first year of Taihō (701). This suggests that older poems were sung anew at the sites of later royal journeys.

The first line, "for my darling's sake," states at the outset the purpose of the gathering. Poem 1667 opens with the same line.
The second line, "I gather jewels on the shore," describes what the speaker is doing now, and the poem pauses here. Tama are lovely pebbles or pearls from the beach, prized as gifts from a journey. Poem 1667 has "I seek for jewels" instead.
The third line, "those that lie offshore," points to jewels out of reach; naru expresses location.
The fourth line, "bring them here and cast them up," is a command. Poem 1667 reads "bring the white pearls to me."
The final line, "O white waves of the open sea," places the addressee at the end in inversion and closes on a noun. The particle tsu is an old form meaning "of." The final line is exactly the same as that of 1667.
Source: Manyoshu
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