Tamamo karu ide no shigarami usumi kamo koi no yodomeru a ga kokoro kamo

玉藻刈るゐでのしがらみ薄みかも
恋の淀める我が心かも

Roma-ji: Tamamo karu ide no shigarami usumi kamo koi no yodomeru a ga kokoro kamo
English Translation: Where they cut sea-weed,
is the weir's woven fencing
thin, I wonder, then,
that my love has come to pool
stagnant in this heart of mine
Meaning: Is it because the woven fence of the weir where jeweled water-weed is cut is thin? How my heart lies stagnant in its love.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2721

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Through the woven fencing of a weir where water-weed is cut, the speaker gazes at a heart in which love has stalled and cannot move forward. Seeking the cause in the thinness of the weir's fencing, the speaker questions himself and expresses the frustration of a love that will not go as wished.
The poem expresses feelings through the woven fencing of a weir. How the fencing relates to the stagnation of love is interpreted in various ways, and there is no settled reading. Following the preceding poem about pent-up water in a pond, this poem likewise overlays stalled water on love. "Ide" (weir) also appears in poem 2717 and "shigarami" (weir fencing) in poem 2709, forming a group of poems on river water.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not been handed down.

First line, "tamamo karu": "where fine water-weed is cut," modifying "ide" (weir). "Tama" (jewel) is an honorific prefix.
Second line, "ide no shigarami": "the woven fencing of the weir." A shigarami is made by driving stakes in a row and weaving branches or bamboo between them to hold back the flow of water.
Third line, "usumi kamo": "is it because it is thin?" "Usumi" is the stem of the adjective "usushi" with the suffix "mi," expressing a reason. "Kamo" expresses a question, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "koi no yodomeru": "in which love lies stagnant." The stagnation of water is overlaid on love that does not move forward.
Fifth line, "a ga kokoro kamo": "how my heart is so." Against the questioning "kamo" of the third line, the poem closes here with an exclamatory "kamo," letting the two echo each other.
Source: Manyoshu
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