Isejima ya Ichishi no ura no ama dani mo kazukanu sode wa nururu mono ka wa - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

伊勢島や一志の浦の海人だにも
かづかぬ袖は濡るるものかは

Roma-ji: Isejima ya Ichishi no ura no ama dani mo kazukanu sode wa nururu mono ka wa
English Translation: Ise, and its bay
at Ichishi, where even
the fisherfolk there,
when they do not dive, would their
sleeves get wet at all? No
Meaning: Even the fisherfolk at Ichishi Bay in Ise—do their sleeves get wet when they do not dive? No; and yet mine are always soaked.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 893

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a love poem"
Like the preceding poem, it was composed as a love poem. Even the fisherfolk of Ichishi Bay in Ise, he says, do their sleeves get wet when they do not dive? Even the fisherfolk who dive into the sea do not wet their sleeves when they are not diving, yet his own sleeves, though he never enters the sea, are always wet with the tears of love, and by implication the poem conveys the abundance of his tears.
The author, "Dōin Hōshi," had the lay name Fujiwara no Atsuyori. He took the tonsure in old age, was known for his devotion to poetry, and took part in poetry contests until late in life. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Poem 859 in this book compares the poet's sleeve with the sleeves of humble folk cutting reeds in the fields, and 886 with the sleeves of the fisherfolk of Ojima, and like them this poem sings of love's tears through the wet sleeves of working people.

First line, "Isejima ya": "Isejima" is the province of Ise, and "ya" an exclamatory particle.
Second line, "Ichishi no ura no": "Ichishi no ura" is a bay in the Ichishi district of Ise.
Third line, "ama dani mo": "ama" means fisherfolk, and "dani" is a particle of inference from the lesser, "even the fisherfolk," implying "how much more I." Like "Ojima no ama no sode dani mo" in the second and third lines of 886 in this book, it invokes the fisherfolk's sleeves.
Fourth line, "kazukanu sode wa": "kazuku" means to dive into water and "nu" is the negative auxiliary, "sleeves when not diving."
Fifth line, "nururu mono ka wa": "ka wa" is a rhetorical particle, "do they get wet? no." It closes with the unspoken sense that his own sleeves are wet with tears.
Author: Dōin
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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