Araora wa meko no nari o ba omowazu ro toshi no yatose o matedo kimasazu

荒雄らは妻子の業をば思はずろ
年の八年を待てど来まさず

Roma-ji: Araora wa meko no nari o ba omowazu ro toshi no yatose o matedo kimasazu
English Translation: Does Arao, then,
care nothing for the living
of his wife and child?
For eight long years and more
I have waited—he does not come.
Meaning: Does Arao care nothing for how his wife and children live? For eight long years I have waited, yet he does not come.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Poems with Tales of Origin and Miscellaneous Poems 3865

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten poems on the fisherman of Shika in Chikuzen."
The wife asks whether Arao cares nothing for his family's living, for though she has waited eight years, he does not come home. Behind words that seem to reproach the absent husband lies the deep grief of one who has waited through long years.
According to the left note, in the Jinki era the Dazaifu appointed Munakatabe no Tsumaro of Munakata District in Chikuzen as helmsman of a ship carrying provisions to Tsushima. Too old to bear the sea, Tsumaro asked Arao, a fisherman of Shika village, to take his place, and Arao, bound by a friendship deeper than brotherhood, gladly agreed. He set sail for Tsushima from Cape Mineraku at Matsura in Hizen, but the sky suddenly darkened, a storm of wind and rain arose, and he sank beneath the sea. Some say his wife and children, unable to bear their longing, made these poems; others that Yamanoue no Okura, Governor of Chikuzen, made them in sympathy with their grief.
The poet, according to one account in the left note, is Yamanoue no Okura, who went to Tang China with an embassy and served as Governor of Chikuzen. He is known for poems on life's hardships and family affection. The poems speak in the voice of Arao's wife and children.

First line, "Araora wa," means "Arao."
Second line, "meko no nari o ba," means "the living of his wife and child." Nari means livelihood.
Third line, "omowazu ro," means "does he not think of it?" Ro is thought to be a particle of dialect coloring, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "toshi no yatose o," means "for eight years." Eight years stands for a long span of time.
Final line, "matedo kimasazu," means "though I wait, he does not come." It shares the last line of poem 3861, where a single day's waiting is here widened to eight years.
Author: Yamanoue no Okura (attributed)
Source: Manyoshu
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