Kurenai no koromo niowashi Sakitagawa tayuru koto naku ware kaerimimu

紅の衣にほはし辟田川
絶ゆることなく我れかへり見む

Roma-ji: Kurenai no koromo niowashi Sakitagawa tayuru koto naku ware kaerimimu
English Translation: Making my robe glow
with its crimson in your stream,
Sakita River,
never ceasing, as you flow,
I shall come again to see you
Meaning: Letting my crimson robe glow in your waters, O Sakita River, I will come back to see you again and again, never ceasing, just as your current never ends.
Commentary: Book Nineteen 4157

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem on fishing with cormorants, with short poems"
This is an envoy to the long poem on cormorant fishing in the Sakita River. Taking up the close of the long poem, where the hem of the robe his wife dyed crimson and sent as a keepsake gets soaked, the poet says that, letting that crimson robe glow against the water, he will visit this river without cease, just as its current never ends.
Along with the pleasure of cormorant fishing, the poem holds both longing for his wife in the capital and praise for a river of Etchū. The location of the Sakita River is disputed and not certain.
The poet, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was the son of the Grand Counselor Ōtomo no Tabito. From 746 he served as Governor of Etchū, living at the provincial headquarters in what is now Fushiki, Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture. He is regarded as the leading poet of the Nara period and is thought to have played a central role in compiling the Man'yōshū.

First line, "kurenai no" (of crimson), takes up the crimson robe from the poet's wife in the long poem and places its vivid color at the head of the poem.
Second line, "koromo niowashi" (making the robe glow): "niowasu" means to make a color shine, describing the crimson robe brilliantly wet in the river.
Third line, "Sakitagawa" (the Sakita River), is the name of the river, and also serves to lead from the first lines into "tayuru koto naku" (without end).
Fourth line, "tayuru koto naku" (never ceasing), overlays the unbroken flow of the river with the poet's unbroken visits.
Fifth line, "ware kaerimimu" (I will come back to see): "kaerimiru" means to visit and look again and again, and the volitional "mu" closes the poem like a vow of attachment to the place.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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