Furusato o kouru tamoto mo kawakanu ni mata shiotaruru ama mo arikeri - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

古里を恋ふる袂も乾かぬに
またしほたるる海人もありけり

Roma-ji: Furusato o kouru tamoto mo kawakanu ni mata shiotaruru ama mo arikeri
English Translation: While my sleeves, that long
for my old home, are not yet dry,
here too I find
the fisherfolk drenched and dripping
with the brine of the salt sea.
Meaning: My sleeves, wet with longing for home, are not yet dry, and here I find fisherfolk too, dripping with brine.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Love Poems 1246

Headnote: "When he went to a province and saw fisherfolk dripping with brine"
The poet says that while his own sleeves, wet with longing for home, are not yet dry, here are fisherfolk dripping with brine as well. The headnote shows it was composed on a journey to a province on seeing fisherfolk wet with brine. Laying his own sleeves, wet with tears of homesickness, over the fisherfolk's sleeves wet with brine, he deepens the loneliness of travel at finding others drenched as he is. It shares the word "shiotaruru" with the next poem, 1247.
The author, Priest Egyō, is said to have served as a lecturer at the provincial temple of Harima and associated with the poets who gathered at the Kawara-in. He is one of the Thirty-Six Later Immortal Poets and is known for his poem "yaemugura" in the Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "furusato o," means "for my old home," thinking of the capital from his travels.
Second line, "kouru tamoto mo," means "my sleeves that long for it," sleeves wet with tears.
Third line, "kawakanu ni," means "while they are not yet dry," with "ni" a concessive particle.
Fourth line, "mata shiotaruru," means "others too dripping with brine," "shiotaru" meaning both to drip with seawater and to be wet with tears. It shares this word with the first line of the next poem, 1247, "shiotaruru."
Final line, "ama mo arikeri," means "there are fisherfolk too, I find," with "keri" expressing a sigh of realization.
Author: The Monk Egyo
Source: Shui Wakashu
Prev Poem: Waga seko o kouru mo kurushi itoma araba hiroite yukamu koiwasuregai
Next Poem: Shiotaruru mi wa ware to nomi omoedomo yoso naru tazu mo ne o zo nakunaru