Ōumi no ariso no sudori asanasana mimaku hoshiki o mienu kimi kamo

大海の荒礒の洲鳥朝な朝な
見まく欲しきを見えぬ君かも

Roma-ji: Ōumi no ariso no sudori asanasana mimaku hoshiki o mienu kimi kamo
English Translation: On the rugged shore
of the wide sea, birds of the shoals:
morning after morning
I long so much to see you,
yet you never come in sight
Meaning: Like the birds on the shoals of the rugged shore of the great sea, I long to see you morning after morning, yet you never appear.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2801

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
As one sees the birds on the shoals of the rugged shore of the wide sea every morning, so the woman longs to meet her lover morning after morning, yet he never shows himself: so she laments. Setting the shore birds that appear without fail each morning against the lover who never appears, she sings of the loneliness of one who waits.
In the sequence on birds, this poem weaves in the shore birds of a rugged coast. It says "asanasana" where poem 2798 said "asana yūna ni," and "mimaku hoshiki o" where poem 2793 said "mimaku hori," layering the longing to meet through closely related phrases.
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, "ōumi no": "of the great sea." The first two lines form a preface leading to "asanasana" from the shore birds seen each morning.
Second line, "ariso no sudori": "the birds of the shoals on the rugged shore." "Ariso" is a rough, rocky coast, and "sudori" are birds flocking on sandbanks.
Third line, "asanasana": "morning after morning." This line turns from preface to main point, laying seeing the shore birds each morning over the wish to meet the lover each morning.
Fourth line, "mimaku hoshiki o": "though I long to see you." "Mimaku" is the nominalized form of "mimu," and "o" is a concessive particle.
Fifth line, "mienu kimi kamo": "you who do not appear!" "Kamo" is an exclamatory final particle, closing the poem with deep grief at not meeting.
Source: Manyoshu
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