南部の浦潮な満ちそね鹿島なる
釣りする海人を見て帰り来む
釣りする海人を見て帰り来む
- Roma-ji
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Minabe no ura shio na michi so ne kashima naru tsuri suru ama o mite kaerikomu
- English Translation
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At Minabe Bay,
O tide, I pray you, do not rise;
at Kashima isle
the fisherfolk who cast their lines—
I would see them and come back.
- Meaning
- Tide of Minabe Bay, please do not rise yet. I want to watch the fisherfolk casting their lines off Kashima and then come back.
- Commentary
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Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1669
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thirteen poems from the time when the Retired Sovereign and the Late Sovereign made a progress to the province of Kii in the tenth month, winter, of the first year of Taihō, kanoto-ushi"
The speaker wants to cross from Minabe Bay to the island of Kashima to watch the fisherfolk at work, and so begs the tide not to rise. The poem shows a courtier's simple curiosity about the unfamiliar fishing life of the coast.
This is the third of the thirteen poems from the progress to Kii in the first year of Taihō (701). Minabe is the shore of present-day Minabe in Hidaka District, Wakayama, and Kashima is a small island offshore.
The first line, "at Minabe Bay," names the place and runs to six syllables, one more than the norm.
The second line, "O tide, I pray you, do not rise," uses na ... so to forbid, with the particle ne adding an earnest request, and the poem pauses here.
The third line, "at Kashima isle," uses naru to express location.
The fourth line, "the fisherfolk who cast their lines," is identical to the fourth line of the next poem, 1670, and poem 1715 also speaks of "the fisherfolk who fish."
The final line, "I would see them and come back," expresses intention. It is exactly the same as the last line of the next poem, 1670, so the two poems stand side by side sharing one lower verse.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Shirasaki wa sakiku ari mate ōbune ni makaji shiji nuki mata kaerimimu
- Next Poem
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Asabiraki kogi dete ware wa yura no saki tsuri suru ama o mite kaerikomu