Ama otome kazuki toru to iu wasuregai yo ni mo wasureji imo ga sugata wa

海人娘子潜き採るといふ忘れ貝
世にも忘れじ妹が姿は

Roma-ji: Ama otome kazuki toru to iu wasuregai yo ni mo wasureji imo ga sugata wa
English Translation: The forgetting shell
that the fisher maidens dive for,
so they say,
yet never will I forget
the form of my darling girl
Meaning: Though the fisher maidens dive for the forgetting shell, so they say, I will never forget the sight of my beloved.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3084

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
Using the "forgetting shell" that fisher maidens dive for as an introduction, the poet vows never to forget the beloved, contrary to its name. Its highlight is turning the name of the shell, thought to make one forget love, on its head.
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, "ama otome," means "the fisher maidens" who dive for their catch.
Line two, "kazuki toru to iu," means "who dive and gather, they say," a hypermetric line of eight syllables.
Line three, "wasuregai," is one half of a bivalve shell, thought to make one forget love when picked up. The lines up to here form an introduction leading to "wasure," to forget. It also appears in poem 3175 in this book.
Line four, "yo ni mo wasureji," means "I will never forget."
Line five, "imo ga sugata wa," means "my beloved's form," inverted with line four.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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