Horie yori asashio michi ni yoru kotsumi kai ni ariseba tsuto ni semashi o

堀江より朝潮満ちに寄る木屑
貝にありせばつとにせましを

Roma-ji: Horie yori asashio michi ni yoru kotsumi kai ni ariseba tsuto ni semashi o
English Translation: From the Horie,
as the morning tide comes in,
the driftwood washes;
if only it were seashells,
I would take them home as gifts
Meaning: The bits of driftwood washing in from Horie on the rising morning tide, if only they were shells, I would take them home as gifts.
Commentary: Book Twenty Miscellaneous Poems 4396

Headnote: "A poem composed alone on seeing refuse floating on the waters of the inlet, resenting that no shells or pearls washed up."
If the driftwood washing in on the morning tide were shells, I would take them home as gifts: the poem resents that no shells or pearls come ashore at Naniwa. The left note says it is the second of three poems composed by Ōtomo no Yakamochi on the seventeenth day of the second month. The "refuse" of the headnote means bits of wood and debris adrift. His wish for gifts for his family in the capital is put, half in jest, as displeasure that driftwood and not shells comes to the beach.
The author, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, son of Ōtomo no Tabito, was at this time Junior Assistant Minister of Military Affairs.

The first line, "Horie yori," "from Horie," names the canal at Naniwa also sung of in the guards' poems.
The second line, "asashio michi ni," means "as the morning tide comes in."
The third line, "yoru kotsumi," "the drifting debris," ends the first sentence.
The fourth line, "kai ni ariseba," uses the counterfactual seba: if only they were shells.
The closing line, "tsuto ni semashi o," with the counterfactual mashi, ends on an impossible wish: I would make them gifts.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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