Oki yuku ya akara obune ni tsuto yaraba kedashi hito mite hiraki mimu kamo

沖行くや赤ら小舟につと遣らば
けだし人見て開き見むかも

Roma-ji: Oki yuku ya akara obune ni tsuto yaraba kedashi hito mite hiraki mimu kamo
English Translation: On the little boat
painted red, bound out to sea,
if I send a gift,
might some stranger find it there
and open it to see?
Meaning: If I send a gift by the little red boat bound out to sea, might some stranger perhaps find it and open it to look?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Poems with Tales of Origin and Miscellaneous Poems 3868

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten poems on the fisherman of Shika in Chikuzen."
The wife worries that if she entrusts a gift for Arao to an official red boat heading out to sea, someone else might open it. Her heart wavers between the wish to reach a husband lost at sea and the reality that it cannot be.
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, "oki yuku ya," means "going out to sea." Ya is an interjectory particle for rhythm.
Second line, "akara obune ni," means "on a little red boat." Boats painted red are thought to have been official vessels.
Third line, "tsuto yaraba," means "if I send a gift by it."
Fourth line, "kedashi hito mite," means "perhaps someone will see it."
Final line, "hiraki mimu kamo," means "and open it to look?" The conjectural mu and exclamatory kamo show her fear that it will never reach him.
Author: Yamanoue no Okura (attributed)
Source: Manyoshu
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