Isari seshi ama no oshieshi izuku zo ya shima meguru tote ari to iishi wa - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いさりせし海人の教へしいづくぞや
しまめぐるとてありと言ひしは

Roma-ji: Isari seshi ama no oshieshi izuku zo ya shima meguru tote ari to iishi wa
English Translation: The fisher at his catch
told me of a certain place—
where can it be?
He said that it was there
if you went around the isle.
Meaning: Where is the place the fisher told me about while he was fishing—the place he said was there if one went around the island?
Commentary: Book Seven Names of Things 400

Headnote: "Soyashimame (soyashima bean)"
The poet asks where the place could be that the fisher told him about, saying it lay around the island. Singing of failing to find the place sought, the poem hides the name "soyashimame" given in the headnote in the run of sounds "zo ya shima me" from the third to the fourth line. The headnote names the thing hidden in the poem.
Takaoka no Sukeyuki is said to have lived in the mid-Heian period, but little is known of his life.

First line, "isari seshi," means "who was fishing."
Second line, "ama no oshieshi," means "that the fisher told."
Third line, "izuku zo ya," means "where is it," and the poem pauses here. Its final "zo ya" forms the head of the name "soyashimame," spanning the upper and lower verses.
Fourth line, "shima meguru tote," means "saying, going around the island." After the names of foods in the preceding poems, it hides the name of a bean.
Final line, "ari to iishi wa," means "that he said was there," giving by inversion the substance of the third line's question.
Author: Takaoka no Sukeyuki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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