Shika no ama no keburi yakitate yaku shio no karaki koi o mo are wa suru kamo

志賀の海人の煙焼き立て焼く塩の
辛き恋をも我れはするかも

Roma-ji: Shika no ama no keburi yakitate yaku shio no karaki koi o mo are wa suru kamo
English Translation: The fisherfolk of Shika
send the smoke rising up high
as they burn their salt;
so bitter is the love
that I find myself enduring
Meaning: Like the salt the fisherfolk of Shika burn, sending their smoke rising high, so bitter is the love I am suffering now.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2742

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Like the salt that the fisherfolk of Shika burn while their smoke rises high, the speaker is enduring a bitter, painful love. The poem lays the bitterness of salt over the pain of love, borrowing a scene of seaside labor to express the ache in the heart with quiet feeling.
As a poem expressing feelings through things, it speaks through the salt burned by the fisherfolk of Shika. Shika is the area of Shikanoshima in present-day Fukuoka City, known as a place where fisherfolk burned seaweed to make salt. From this poem on through the next poem, 2743, and poem 2744, poems on the fisherfolk and their work follow one another. The closing form "are wa suru kamo" also resonates with "koi mo suru kamo" in poem 2746 of this book, and poems lamenting the pain of love are set among the poems on seaside things.
The left note says, "Of the above poem, one account says it was composed by Ishikawa no Kimiko Ason," so the name of Ishikawa no Kimiko has come down as its author according to one account. Ishikawa no Kimiko was an official of the Nara period who served as Governor of Harima and then, in the Jinki era, as Junior Assistant Governor-General of Dazaifu, later rising to the Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade. The fisherfolk of Shika belong to the shores of Chikuzen near Dazaifu, which accords with the tradition that the poem was written by an official posted to Tsukushi.

First line, "Shika no ama no": "the fisherfolk of Shika." With six syllables, "shika no ama no" is a hypermetric line. Shika is the area of Shikanoshima in Chikuzen, written in the original script with characters meaning "strong deer."
Second line, "keburi yakitate": "burning, sending up smoke." It depicts the seaside scene of smoke rising from the burning of seaweed for salt.
Third line, "yaku shio no": "of the salt they burn." The first three lines form a preface, leading from the saltiness of salt to "karaki," "bitter."
Fourth line, "karaki koi o mo": "a bitter love." "Karaki" joins the salty taste of salt with the pain of love, and the particle "mo" is added.
Fifth line, "are wa suru kamo": "I find that I am doing." "Kamo" is an exclamatory particle, lamenting that the speaker has come to suffer so painful a love.
Author: Ishikawa no Kimiko (according to one account)
Source: Manyoshu
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