Kuroushigata shiohi no ura o kurenai no tamamo susobiki yuku wa ta ga tsuma

黒牛潟潮干の浦を紅の
玉裳裾引き行くは誰が妻

Roma-ji: Kuroushigata shiohi no ura o kurenai no tamamo susobiki yuku wa ta ga tsuma
English Translation: At Kuroushi Lagoon
along the bay where the tide has ebbed,
in robes of crimson
trailing the hem of her jeweled skirt—
whose wife is it who walks there?
Meaning: Across the ebb-tide shore of Kuroushi Lagoon walks a woman trailing the hem of a lovely crimson skirt. Whose wife could she be?
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1672

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"
Seeing a woman walk along the ebb-tide shore of Kuroushi Lagoon, trailing a crimson skirt, the speaker is drawn to wonder whose wife she is. The contrast between the dark name of the lagoon, "Black Ox," and the crimson skirt is vivid, and she is probably a court lady in the royal train.
This is the sixth of the thirteen poems from the progress to Kii in the first year of Taihō (701). Kuroushi Lagoon is thought to be an inlet near Kuroe in present-day Kainan, Wakayama.
Poem 1798, among the elegies of this book, speaks of the same lagoon as a place once seen with a wife now dead. The bright shore where a woman in crimson walks becomes a place of loneliness in the elegy, so that the miscellaneous poem and the elegy form a pair of light and shadow.

The first line, "at Kuroushi Lagoon," names the place in six syllables, one more than usual. Its "black" contrasts with the "crimson" of the third line.
The second line, "along the bay where the tide has ebbed," sets the scene of her walk.
The third line, "in robes of crimson," gives the color of the skirt, making a bright red stand out on the bared shore.
The fourth line, "trailing the hem of her jeweled skirt," uses tama as a word of praise; a long trailing hem suggests a lady of the court.
The final line, "whose wife is it who walks there?" closes on a noun with a question, hinting at the speaker's interest in the lovely stranger.
Source: Manyoshu
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