Suminoe no Shikitsu no ura no nanoriso no na wa noriteshi o awanaku mo ayashi

住吉の敷津の浦のなのりその
名は告りてしを逢はなくも怪し

Roma-ji: Suminoe no Shikitsu no ura no nanoriso no na wa noriteshi o awanaku mo ayashi
English Translation: Like the nanoriso,
the "tell-your-name" weed in the bay
of Shikitsu, Suminoe,
I told my name to you, and yet
how strange we do not meet
Meaning: Like the nanoriso seaweed in Shikitsu Bay at Suminoe, I have told you my name, and yet how strange it is that we do not meet.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3076

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
This is taken as a woman's poem: using the nanoriso seaweed of Shikitsu Bay at Suminoe as an introduction, she says how strange it is that they do not meet though she has told her name. For a woman to reveal her name to a man meant accepting his proposal, and she wonders why he still does not come. From here a series of poems on nanoriso follows.
The poet is unknown. Book Twelve, titled the second part of "Love Poems Exchanged Old and New," gathers love poems by people whose names have not come down to us, arranged by category.

Line one, "Suminoe no," refers to the area of Sumiyoshi Ward in Osaka, read "Suminoe" in the kana line.
Line two, "Shikitsu no ura no," means "of Shikitsu Bay" at Suminoe.
Line three, "nanoriso no," is the seaweed hondawara, and the lines up to here form an introduction leading through the sound "na noru," to tell one's name, to "na wa nori." It also appears in poems 3077 and 3177 in this book.
Line four, "na wa noriteshi o," means "though I told my name."
Line five, "awanaku mo ayashi," means "it is strange we do not meet," a hypermetric line of eight syllables.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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