Naniwatsu ni yosoiyosoite kyō no hi ya idete makaramu miru haha nashi ni

難波津に装ひ装ひて今日の日や
出でて罷らむ見る母なしに

Roma-ji: Naniwatsu ni yosoiyosoite kyō no hi ya idete makaramu miru haha nashi ni
English Translation: At Naniwa's port
we make ready and ready,
and on this day now
am I to sail and depart
with no mother there to see?
Meaning: At Naniwa harbor we make ready again and again; is today the day I set out and leave, with no mother there to watch me go?
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4330

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
Making ready again and again at Naniwa harbor, is today the day I set out, with no mother to see me go? The poem sings of the loneliness of the day of sailing. According to the left note, it closes the three poems recorded from the eight presented by Fujiwara no Sukunamaro, escort officer of Sagami. As if answering the preceding poem's grief at having no one to see him off, it sings of a departure without his mother.
The author, Marako no Ōmaro, is recorded as a regular guard from Kamakura District in Sagami; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "Naniwatsu ni," names the harbor from which the guards sailed, taking up "Naniwa" in the preceding poem.
The second line, "yosoiyosoite," doubles the verb to show careful preparations. It echoes "decking out the ships" in the preceding poem.
The third line, "kyō no hi ya," uses the interrogative ya, resolved by the attributive makaramu in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "idete makaramu," uses makaru, "to withdraw, to depart": am I really leaving now?
The closing line, "miru haha nashi ni," is inverted, placing the grief of a departure unseen by his mother at the end and answering the preceding poem's close, "would there were someone to see."
Author: Marako no Ōmaro
Source: Manyoshu
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