Kore o miyo Muta no yodo ni sade sashite shioreshi shizu no asagoromo ka wa - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

これを見よ六田の淀にさでさして
しをれし賤の麻衣かは

Roma-ji: Kore o miyo Muta no yodo ni sade sashite shioreshi shizu no asagoromo ka wa
English Translation: Look at this, I pray:
is it the hempen robe of a
humble fisher, drenched
from setting his scoop net in
the still pools at Muta? No
Meaning: Look at this: is it the hempen robe of some humble fisher, drenched from setting his scoop net in the still pool at Muta? No, it is my own sleeve, soaked with tears of love.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 955

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Look at this, he says: is it the hempen robe of a humble man, drenched from setting his scoop net in the pool at Muta? Showing his own soaking sleeve, he declares by rhetorical question that it is not the hemp robe of a lowly fisherman wet from netting fish in the still pool of the Yoshino River at Muta, implying that it is a sleeve soaked with the tears of love. Boldly taking up the homely image of a fisherman's wet clothes, it is a poem in the poet's characteristic vein.
The author, "Minamoto no Toshiyori Ason," was the son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu. A central figure of Emperor Horikawa's poetic circle, he compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū at the command of Retired Emperor Shirakawa. His personal collection is the Sanboku Kika Shū, and a poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
This poem and the next, 956, are two poems in a row by Minamoto no Toshiyori. Both call up the wet clothes and sleeves of people who work by the water and set them against the reason his own sleeves are wet, forming a pair.

First line, "kore o miyo": "look at this," a call showing the beloved his tear-soaked sleeve. The poem pauses here.
Second line, "Muta no yodo ni": Muta is a place on the Yoshino River in Yamato, and "yodo" a still pool where the current slows.
Third line, "sade sashite": "sade" is a small scoop net, and "sasu" means to thrust it into the water.
Fourth line, "shioreshi shizu no": "shiore" means to be drenched, and "shi" is the attributive of the past "ki," "of a humble man who was drenched." It corresponds to "tatsu tami mo" in the third line of the next poem, 956, both singing of people who work by the water.
Fifth line, "asagoromo ka wa": "asagoromo" is a coarse robe of hemp, and "ka wa" a rhetorical particle, "is it a hemp robe? no." It implies a sleeve soaked with the tears of love. It answers "sode wa nururame" in the last line of the next poem, both singing of wet clothing.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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