Ayu no kaze itaku fukurashi Nago no ama no tsuri suru obune kogikakuru miyu

あゆの風いたく吹くらし奈呉の海人の
釣する小船漕ぎ隠る見ゆ

Roma-ji: Ayu no kaze itaku fukurashi Nago no ama no tsuri suru obune kogikakuru miyu
English Translation: The east wind, ayu,
must be blowing hard out there:
the Nago fishermen,
in their little fishing boats,
row and vanish in the waves
Meaning: The east wind must be blowing hard: I can see the little fishing boats of the Nago fishermen rowing in and out of sight among the waves.
Commentary: Book Seventeen 4017

Headnote: none (there is no title; the left note reads, "The above four poems: twenty-ninth day of the first month, spring, of the twentieth year of Tenpyō, Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi")
The east wind must be blowing hard, for the fishing boats of Nago vanish among the waves as they row—a poem on the Etchū seascape. This is one of four poems Yakamochi composed in Etchū on the twenty-ninth day of the first month of 748. Bringing in the local word ayu no kaze, it looks out from afar on fishermen at work on a rough winter sea.
The poet, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was the son of the Major Counselor Ōtomo no Tabito. Appointed Governor of Etchū in 746, he spent five years there, later serving as Junior Counselor and Governor of Inaba before rising to Middle Counselor. He is thought to have played a central role in compiling the Man'yōshū.
The first line carries an original note: "In the local speech of Koshi, the east wind is called ayu no kaze." The note shows that a regional word, not the speech of the capital, has been taken into the poem.

First line, "ayu no kaze": as the original note says, the east wind in the dialect of Koshi. The chōka 4006 that Yakamochi sent Ikenushi also sings of "the east wind blowing hard."
Second line, "itaku fukurashi": rashi expresses inference from evidence—"it must be blowing hard." The poem pauses here, giving the evidence below. The next poem, 4018, takes the same form with "samuku fukurashi."
Third line, "Nago no ama no": the fishermen of the Nago sea; the line is hypermetric (six morae). Hata no Yachishima's 3956 also sings of "the fishing boats of the Nago fishermen."
Fourth line, "tsuri suru obune": small boats out fishing.
Fifth line, "kogikakuru miyu": "I see them rowing out of sight," the archaic construction with miyu after a verb's conclusive form. It is the same construction as "tamamo karu miyu" in 3890 at the head of the book, so a distant gaze on people at work by the sea is shared by the beginning and end of the book.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Mei no no no susuki oshinabe furu yuki ni yado karu kyō shi kanashiku omohoyu
Next Poem: Minatokaze samuku fukurashi Nago no e ni tsuma yobikawashi tazu sawa ni naku