Aratsu no umi shiohi shiomichi toki wa aredo izure no toki ka aga koizaramu

荒津の海潮干潮満ち時はあれど
いづれの時か我が恋ひざらむ

Roma-ji: Aratsu no umi shiohi shiomichi toki wa aredo izure no toki ka aga koizaramu
English Translation: On Aratsu's sea
the tide ebbs and the tide flows,
there are times for each,
but at what time, I wonder,
shall I ever cease to yearn
Meaning: On the sea at Aratsu the tide has its set times to ebb and to flow—but is there any time at all when I do not long for you?
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3891

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "In the eleventh month, winter, of the second year of Tenpyō, when Lord Ōtomo, Governor-General of Dazaifu, was appointed Major Counselor (while keeping his post as before) and went up to the capital, his attendants took a separate sea route. Grieving over the journey, each set down his heart in these ten poems"
The tides of Aratsu keep fixed hours of ebb and flow, but the poet's longing knows no such pause; the unending yearning is set against the rhythm of the sea. In 730, when Ōtomo no Tabito, Governor-General of Dazaifu, was appointed Major Counselor and returned to the capital, his attendants traveled separately by sea and set down the sorrows of their voyage in ten poems. Apparently composed on leaving Aratsu, the port of Tsukushi, it contrasts the movement of the sea with the heart that turns toward home and the capital.
The left note records the poet's name as unknown; he was one of the attendants of Tabito who traveled to the capital by sea.

First line, "Aratsu no umi": Aratsu was a port in Chikuzen, thought to be near today's Nishi Park in Chūō Ward, Fukuoka—the outer harbor of Dazaifu where officials embarked and landed. The line has an extra syllable (six morae).
Second line, "shiohi shiomichi": "the tide ebbs, the tide flows"; the repetition of shio conveys the regular recurrence of the tides.
Third line, "toki wa aredo": "though there are set times," the concessive do setting the tides against the love in the lower verse.
Fourth line, "izure no toki ka": ka is a rhetorical particle—"at what time could it be?"—implying "at no time."
Fifth line, "aga koizaramu": "that I should not yearn," ending in the attributive form in answer to ka. The fixed times of the tide and the love that keeps no time are vividly opposed.
Source: Manyoshu
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