Akatoki no kawataredoki ni shimakagi o koginishi fune no tazuki shirazu mo

暁のかはたれ時に島蔭を
漕ぎ去し船のたづき知らずも

Roma-ji: Akatoki no kawataredoki ni shimakagi o koginishi fune no tazuki shirazu mo
English Translation: At the break of dawn,
in the half-light hour of
"who is that out there?",
the ship that rowed past the isle,
where it went, I cannot know
Meaning: In the dim light before dawn, a ship rowed away behind the island, and I cannot tell where it has gone.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4384

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."
In the dim hour before dawn, the ship that rowed away behind the island has gone I know not where: the poem sings of unease on the sea. According to the left note, Agatainukai no Kiyohito, junior clerk and escort officer of Shimōsa Province, presented twenty-two poems on the sixteenth day of the second month, and the clumsy ones were left out. This is the first. The fear of losing sight of a ship gone ahead overlays the uncertainty of his own journey. Shimakagi for shimakage is a dialect form.
The author, Osada no Himatsuri no Tokotari, was an assistant guard from Unakami District in Shimōsa, recorded as belonging to the family of the Unakami provincial chieftains; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "akatoki no," refers to the dark time before dawn.
The second line, "kawataredoki ni," the hour when one asks "who is that?", unable to tell faces apart, expresses the half-light of dawn.
The third line, "shimakagi o," "behind the island," shows the ship's course.
The fourth line, "koginishi fune no," means "the ship that rowed away."
The closing line, "tazuki shirazu mo," uses tazuki, "trace, sign," ending in unease: I do not know where it has gone.
Author: Osada no Himatsuri no Tokotari
Source: Manyoshu
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