Suzuki toru ama no tomoshibi yoso ni dani minu hito yue ni kouru kono koro

鱸取る海人の燈火外にだに
見ぬ人ゆゑに恋ふるこのころ

Roma-ji: Suzuki toru ama no tomoshibi yoso ni dani minu hito yue ni kouru kono koro
English Translation: Like the far-off fires
of fishers who take sea bass,
not even from far
have I seen the one for whom
I am yearning in these days
Meaning: Like the fishing fires of those who catch sea bass, seen only from afar, I yearn these days for someone I have never seen even from a distance.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2744

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
This love poem describes the speaker's present state: longing for someone never seen, not even from afar. The swelling of feeling for a person known only by hearsay is expressed through the fishing fires burning on the night sea.
It is a poem "Expressing Feelings through Things" that uses the seaside scene of fishers' fires as an introductory phrase. Continuing from the two preceding poems, it again takes up fishers, and a scene from their life leads into thoughts of love.
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, "suzuki toru": "catching sea bass," describing night fishing by firelight.
Second line, "ama no tomoshibi": the fires lit by the fishers. The first two lines form an introductory phrase that, through fires seen from far away, leads to "yoso ni" in the third line.
Third line, "yoso ni dani": "not even from afar." The particle "dani" marks the least that one might hope for.
Fourth line, "minu hito yue ni": "because of one I have never seen." "Yue ni" expresses cause, stressing that the beloved has not been seen even at a distance.
Fifth line, "kouru kono koro": "yearning in these days." Ending on a noun, it fixes the speaker's present aching state.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Nakanaka ni kimi ni koizu wa nawa no ura no ama ni ara mashi o tamamo karu karu
Next Poem: Minato iri no ashiwake obune sawari ōmi aga omou kimi ni awanu koro kamo