Shirotae no Fujie no ura ni isari suru ama to ya miramu tabi yuku ware o

白栲の藤江の浦に漁りする
海人とや見らむ旅行く我れを

Roma-ji: Shirotae no Fujie no ura ni isari suru ama to ya miramu tabi yuku ware o
English Translation: In white-hempen
Fujie Bay, fishing,
a fisherman
is that how they see me,
me on my journey
Meaning: Will people take me for a fisherman plying his trade in Fujie Bay, when I am only a traveler passing through?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3607

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Old poems recited to suit the place"
He wonders whether the people of the place will take him, traveling along the shore of Fujie Bay, for a fisherman at work. With a touch of self-mockery he sees his traveling lot, an official of the capital so worn by the sea wind as to be indistinguishable from a fisherman. According to the left note, in Hitomaro's poem the first line is "aratae no" and the fourth "suzuki tsuru ama to ka miramu"; it corresponds to 252 in Book Three.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, active as a court poet in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, and left many fine travel poems and elegies. This poem has come down in a form in which his poem was altered by members of the embassy as they recited it.
According to the headnote, 3602 to 3610 of this book are old poems the travelers recited along the way as suited to the place. Poems not of their own making were thus taken into the travel sequence, showing how people of the time shared old poems and adapted them to the occasion.

First line, "shirotae no": white bark-cloth; since cloth was woven from wisteria (fuji) fiber, it is a pillow word for "Fujie." Hitomaro's poem has "aratae no."
Second line, "Fujie no ura ni": Fujie Bay in Harima Province, near Fujie in present-day Akashi, Hyōgo Prefecture.
Third line, "isari suru": "isaru" means to catch fish or shellfish: fishing.
Fourth line, "ama to ya miramu": "ya" is an interrogative binding particle resolved by the attributive "ramu": will they see me as a fisherman? Hitomaro's poem reads "suzuki tsuru ama to ka miramu."
Fifth line, "tabi yuku ware o": inverted with the fourth line, it reveals at the end that it is himself, a traveler.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (variant)
Source: Manyoshu
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