Ika ni aru fuse no ura zo mo kokodaku ni kimi ga misemu to ware o todomuru

いかにある布勢の浦ぞもここだくに
君が見せむと我れを留むる

Roma-ji: Ika ni aru fuse no ura zo mo kokodaku ni kimi ga misemu to ware o todomuru
English Translation: What sort of place is
this Fuse Bay, I wonder,
that you should so much
wish to show it to me
that you keep me here with you?
Meaning: What kind of place can Fuse Bay be, that you are so eager to show it to me that you keep me from leaving?
Commentary: Book Eighteen 4036

Headnote: "At that time it was agreed to go sightseeing on the lagoon of Fuse the next day, and so each expressed his feelings in a poem."
The poet asks what kind of place Fuse Bay can be, since Yakamochi is so eager to show it to him that he keeps his guest from leaving. Responding to the plan for an outing on the lagoon of Fuse the next day, the guest answers his host's hospitality with anticipation for a famous place he has not yet seen.
Tanabe no Sakimaro was a clerk in the Office of Sake Brewing who came to Etchū as the messenger of the Minister of the Left, Tachibana no Moroe. He was a poet of the late Man'yō period, skilled at long poems in praise of the court.
The left note reads, "The poem above is by Tanabe no Fubito Sakimaro," and the left note to 4043 adds that the ten preceding poems were composed at a banquet on the twenty-fourth. The next poem, 4037, is Yakamochi's answer to this question, so the two form a dialogue.

First line, "ika ni aru": asking "what is it like," it sets the whole poem in a questioning tone.
Second line, "Fuse no ura zo mo": Fuse Bay is the lagoon of Fuse in Imizu District of Etchū, a large lagoon that once lay in present-day Himi, Toyama. "Zo mo" strengthens the question, and the poem pauses after the second line.
Third line, "kokodaku ni": "this much," stressing how earnestly Yakamochi detains him.
Fourth line, "kimi ga misemu to": "kimi" is the host, Yakamochi. "Mu" is an auxiliary of intention, "intending to show me."
Last line, "ware o todomuru": ending in the attributive form, the poem leaves a lingering sense of wonder. From the standpoint of the guest being kept, it praises the depth of the host's hospitality.
Author: Tanabe no Sakimaro
Source: Manyoshu
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