Tamamo karu Nojima no ura no ama dani mo ito kaku sode wa nururu mono ka wa - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

玉藻刈る野島の浦の海人だにも
いとかく袖は濡るるものかは

Roma-ji: Tamamo karu Nojima no ura no ama dani mo ito kaku sode wa nururu mono ka wa
English Translation: Cutting jewel-weed
in the bay of Nojima,
do even fishers
ever find their sleeves so drenched,
soaked as thoroughly as mine?
Meaning: Even the fisherfolk who cut the lovely seaweed in the bay of Nojima, do their sleeves ever get as soaked as mine? Surely not.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 713

Headnote: "Composed as a love poem at a poetry contest held at his house when the Hosshōji Lay Priest, the former Chancellor, was Palace Minister"
Composed as a love poem at a poetry contest held at the house of Fujiwara no Tadamichi, the Hosshōji Lay Priest and former Chancellor, when he was Palace Minister. Do even the fisherfolk who cut seaweed in the bay of Nojima, he asks, ever have their sleeves so wet? Comparing his sleeves with those of fisherfolk who toil drenched in brine, he uses a rhetorical question to plead that his tears of love are greater still.
The author, "Minamoto no Masamitsu," was the son of Minister of the Right Minamoto no Akifusa. He served as an official and was active in poetry contests.
As if answering the question "sode wa nuru ya" in the last line of 704 at the head of the book, poems comparing the wetness of sleeves continue from this one to 717 and 718. Its closing "mono ka wa" is the same rhetorical form as "nureshi mono ka wa" in the last line of 717.

First line, "tamamo karu": "cutting lovely seaweed," used as a pillow word for places by the sea.
Second line, "Nojima no ura no": Nojima in Awaji is a famed place sung of as a bay where fisherfolk live.
Third line, "ama dani mo": "dani" expresses inference from a lesser case, "even the fisherfolk who work drenched in brine."
Fourth line, "ito kaku sode wa": "sleeves so drenched as this," pointing to his own. Like "sode wa nuru ya" in the last line of 704 at the head of the book, it sings of sleeves wet with the tears of love.
Fifth line, "nururu mono ka wa": "mono ka wa" is rhetorical, "do they ever get so wet? Never." It takes the same rhetorical form as "nureshi mono ka wa" in the last line of 717.
Author: Minamoto no Masamitsu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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