Chinu no umi no shiohi no komatsu nemokoro ni koi ya wataramu hito no ko yue ni

茅渟の海の潮干の小松ねもころに
恋ひやわたらむ人の子ゆゑに

Roma-ji: Chinu no umi no shiohi no komatsu nemokoro ni koi ya wataramu hito no ko yue ni
English Translation: By the sea of Chinu,
like the young pines at low tide
with roots running deep,
shall I go on loving so,
all for another's daughter
Meaning: Like the roots of the young pines on the low-tide shore of the Sea of Chinu, shall I go on loving so earnestly, all for the sake of someone else's daughter?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2486

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
This poem is the variant recorded in the left note to poem 2486 immediately before it, introduced with the words "a certain book's poem says." Calling up "nemokoro ni" (earnestly) from the roots of the young pines on the low-tide shore of the Sea of Chinu, it wonders whether the speaker must go on loving another's daughter with such devotion, contemplating a love with no clear future.
It differs from the main poem in its second line, "shiohi no komatsu" instead of "hamahe no komatsu"; its third, "nemokoro ni" instead of "ne fukamete"; and its fourth, "koi ya wataramu" instead of "are koi wataru." Whereas the main poem firmly states a love being lived now, the variant uses a question to contemplate a love that will go on, giving it a different tone. The word "nemokoro" also appears in poems 2472 and 2473 of this book.
The author is unknown; according to the left note, the poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection. That collection is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he recorded. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jito and Emperor Monmu, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "Chinu no umi no": the sea off the coast of Izumi Province, the southern part of present-day Osaka Bay. It is a hypermetric line of six syllables, the same as in the main poem.
Second line, "shiohi no komatsu": "the young pines on the shore at low tide." The first two lines form a preface, leading from the roots (ne) of the young pines into the following "nemokoro ni," which shares that sound.
Third line, "nemokoro ni": "earnestly, with all my heart," corresponding to "ne fukamete" in the main poem.
Fourth line, "koi ya wataramu": "shall I go on loving?" The particle "ya" is answered by the attributive form of the conjectural auxiliary "mu," a kakari-musubi construction, and the poem pauses here.
Fifth line, "hito no ko yue ni": "though she is another's daughter," the same as in the main poem. Through the inversion it reveals at the end that the beloved is one beyond the speaker's reach.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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