Shiratama no iotsu tsudoi o te ni musubi okosemu ama wa mugashiku mo aru ka

白玉の五百つ集ひを手にむすび
おこせむ海人はむがしくもあるか

Roma-ji: Shiratama no iotsu tsudoi o te ni musubi okosemu ama wa mugashiku mo aru ka
English Translation: White pearls by the hundreds
gathered up together and
scooped in cupped hands—
should a diver send me those,
how grateful I would be!
Meaning: If some diver should scoop up hundreds of pearls in his hands and send them to me, how grateful I would be!
Commentary: Book Eighteen 4105

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem wishing for pearls to send to my home in the capital [with short poems]."
The poet imagines how grateful he would be if a diver scooped up a great heap of pearls in his hands and sent them. As the close of the sequence wishing for pearls, it pictures the joy of the wish fulfilled and shows how strongly he longs for them.
Ōtomo no Yakamochi was the son of Ōtomo no Tabito, and from 746 he served as governor of Etchū. He is believed to have played a central role in compiling the Man'yōshū, and this book has the character of a poetic diary of his years in Etchū.
The left note reads, "The above were composed by Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi on the fourteenth of the fifth month, as the mood took him." The text also notes a variant last line, but its reading is unsettled, and since it is not part of the poem itself, it has been omitted.

First line, "shiratama no": taking up "shiratama mo ga mo," the last line of the preceding poem, it begins with pearls.
Second line, "iotsu tsudoi o": "iotsu" means a great number and "tsudoi" a gathering, a heap of many pearls. It echoes the long poem's "awabidama iochi mo ga mo."
Third line, "te ni musubi": "musubu" means to scoop up with cupped hands.
Fourth line, "okosemu ama wa": "okosu" means to send to oneself, and "mu" is softening.
Last line, "mugashiku mo aru ka": "mugashi" means joyful or grateful, and "ka" is exclamatory. The sequence wishing for pearls ends with imagined joy.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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