Shika no ama no shioyakikoromo narenuredo koi to iu mono wa wasurekanetsu mo

志賀の海人の塩焼き衣なれぬれど
恋といふものは忘れかねつも

Roma-ji: Shika no ama no shioyakikoromo narenuredo koi to iu mono wa wasurekanetsu mo
English Translation: Like the salt-burning robes
of the fisherfolk of Shika,
worn soft though we have grown,
this thing that is called love
I cannot forget at all
Meaning: Like the robes worn soft by the fisherfolk of Shika as they burn salt, we have grown familiar with each other, and yet love is a thing one cannot forget.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2622

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
As the robes worn by the fisherfolk of Shika when burning salt grow soft and familiar with use, so the speaker has grown familiar with the beloved, and yet love remains impossible to forget: this is a love poem. It expresses the strangeness of a love that, though familiarity should dull it, only refuses to fade, by speaking through a concrete object from life on the shore.
The headnote continues from the preceding poem, "Expressing Feelings through Things," and this poem speaks through the salt-burner's robe. Shika lies around Shikanoshima in the province of Chikuzen, known as a place where fisherfolk made salt. The next poem, 2623, likewise speaks of love through a robe grown familiar with wear, "nare wa suredomo," and poem 2624 echoes this poem's last line, "wasurekanetsu mo," with its own last line, "wasurekanetsuru."
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "Shika no ama no": "of the fisherfolk of Shika." Shika lies around present-day Shikanoshima in Fukuoka, and the ama were people who dived for fish or burned salt. The first and second lines form an introductory phrase leading to "nare" in the third line.
Second line, "shioyakikoromo": "salt-burning robes," the robes worn by fisherfolk when burning salt. They appear as garments exposed to seawater and smoke and worn soft with use.
Third line, "narenuredo": "though we have grown familiar." "Nare" combines the sense of a robe worn soft with use and of people growing familiar with each other. "Nure" is the perfective form of the completion auxiliary "nu," and "do" is a concessive particle.
Fourth line, "koi to iu mono wa": "this thing called love." It takes up love as a general matter and stresses it with the particle "wa." The line has an extra syllable.
Fifth line, "wasurekanetsu mo": "I cannot forget it." "Kane" adds the sense of being unable, "tsu" is an auxiliary of completion, and "mo" is a sentence-final particle of feeling. It is the same phrasing as the last line of poem 2624, "wasurekanetsuru."
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Surikoromo keri to ime ni mitsu utsutsu ni wa izure no hito no koto ka shigekemu
Next Poem: Kurenai no yashio no koromo asanasana nare wa suredomo iya mezurashi mo