Tsunoshima no seto no wakame wa hito no muta arakarishikado ware to wa nikime

角島の瀬戸のわかめは人の共
荒かりしかど我れとは和海藻

Roma-ji: Tsunoshima no seto no wakame wa hito no muta arakarishikado ware to wa nikime
English Translation: At Tsunoshima,
the wakame in the straits
with other men
was rough and wild, they say,
but with me, soft seaweed.
Meaning: The wakame of the Tsunoshima straits was rough with others, but with me it is the soft and gentle kind.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Poems with Tales of Origin and Miscellaneous Poems 3871

Headnote: none; the left note reads: "The above is one poem."
The poet says the wakame of the Tsunoshima straits was rough with others but soft with him. Likening the seaweed to a woman, he boasts that a girl cold to other men opened her heart to him alone.
The left note records only "the above is one poem," and its author and origin are unknown. Tsunoshima is an island in Nagato, off the northwest of present-day Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
The poet is not recorded.

First line, "Tsunoshima no," names Tsunoshima in Nagato.
Second line, "seto no wakame wa," means "the wakame of the straits." Some also read wakame as "young woman."
Third line, "hito no muta," means "with others." Muta means "together with."
Fourth line, "arakarishikado," means "though it was rough," overlaying the nature of seaweed grown in rough seas on the girl's coldness.
Final line, "ware to wa nikime," means "with me it is soft seaweed." Contrasting ara, "rough," with niki, "soft," it shows the girl's two faces through the names of seaweed.
Source: Manyoshu
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