Ōbune ni obune hikisoe kazuku tomo Shika no Arao ni kazuki awame ya mo

大船に小舟引き添へ潜くとも
志賀の荒雄に潜き逢はめやも

Roma-ji: Ōbune ni obune hikisoe kazuku tomo Shika no Arao ni kazuki awame ya mo
English Translation: With the great ship
and a little boat in tow,
though we dive and search,
could we ever dive and meet
Arao of Shika again?
Meaning: Though we dive and search with a small boat tied alongside a great ship, could we ever dive down and meet Arao of Shika again? Never.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Poems with Tales of Origin and Miscellaneous Poems 3869

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten poems on the fisherman of Shika in Chikuzen."
The poem says that even diving with a great ship and small boats in search, she can never meet Arao again. Closing the set of ten, it shows the deep grief of a wife who at last accepts her husband's death.
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, "ōbune ni," means "with a great ship," paired with obune, "little boat," in the second line.
Second line, "obune hikisoe," means "with a little boat in tow," showing every means used in the search.
Third line, "kazuku tomo," means "though we dive." As befits a fisherman's wife, she speaks of diving to search.
Fourth line, "Shika no Arao ni," means "Arao of Shika." For the first time in the set he is called Arao rather than Araora.
Final line, "kazuki awame ya mo," means "could we dive and meet him? Never." Ya mo marks a rhetorical question, and repeating kazuku from the third line, the ten poems close on resignation that they will never meet again.
Author: Yamanoue no Okura (attributed)
Source: Manyoshu
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