Ushimado no nami no shiosai shima toyomi yosorishi kimi wa awazu kamo aramu

牛窓の波の潮騒島響み
寄そりし君は逢はずかもあらむ

Roma-ji: Ushimado no nami no shiosai shima toyomi yosorishi kimi wa awazu kamo aramu
English Translation: At Ushimado
the tide-roar of the breakers
makes the island ring:
you, whom rumor tied to me,
will we never come to meet
Meaning: As the roar of the rising tide at Ushimado makes the island ring, so loudly were you linked with me by rumor; will you and I still never meet?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2731

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Though the speaker has been linked with the beloved in gossip loud enough to make the island ring like the roar of the tide at Ushimado, the two may never meet: the poem voices that fear. It expresses the frustration of rumors that swell while no real meeting follows, and is also seen as a poem in a woman's voice.
As a poem expressing feelings through things, it speaks through the roar of the tide at Ushimado. "Yosorishi" means having been paired by rumor, and like "yosu tomo" in poem 2729 of this book it sings of being "drawn together" by gossip. As if forming a pair with the preceding poem, which laments loud rumors about someone never met, it continues the lament of rumors that rise while meetings do not come.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "Ushimado no": "of Ushimado," a place in Setouchi, Okayama Prefecture, known as a port on the Inland Sea.
Second line, "nami no shiosai": "the roar of the waves as the tide comes in."
Third line, "shima toyomi": "making the island ring." The lines up to here form a preface, depicting the clamor of rumor through a din that fills the island, and leading to "yosorishi."
Fourth line, "yosorishi kimi wa": "you, who were paired with me in rumor." "Shi" is the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki."
Fifth line, "awazu kamo aramu": "will we not meet after all." The particle "kamo" is answered by the attributive "aramu" of the conjectural "mu" in a kakari-musubi construction, expressing doubt and unease.
Source: Manyoshu
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