Obotsukana kyō wa ne no hi ka ama naraba miru o dani hikamashi mono o - Tosa Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

おぼつかなけふは子の日かあまならば
海松をだに引かましものを

Roma-ji: Obotsukana kyō wa ne no hi ka ama naraba miru o dani hikamashi mono o
English Translation: How uncertain—is
today the Day of the Rat?
Were I a fisher,
I would pull at least seaweed
as one pulls young pines today
Meaning: I'm not quite sure—is today the Day of the Rat? If I were a fisherwoman, I could at least pull up some sea-pine weed.
Commentary: 38 The Twenty-Ninth Day of the First Month: The Day of the Rat at Sea and the Port of Tosa

On the twenty-ninth day of the first month, the party set out and sailed on, rowing under a mild, sunny sky. Noticing how long their nails had grown, they counted the days and found it was the Day of the Rat, so they did not cut them. Since it was the first month, people spoke of the Day of the Rat outing held in the capital and said, "If only there were little pines," but at sea that was impossible.
The Day of the Rat outing was an observance held on the first Day of the Rat of the new year, when people went out into the fields to pull up young pines and gather spring greens, praying for long life. Those who compose poems this day are "a certain woman," "a certain person," and a woman who once lived in a place called Tosa.
Unable to pull up young pines though it was the Day of the Rat, a certain woman wrote down this poem and handed it over.
The diarist wonders how it stands as a Day of the Rat poem composed at sea. Then a certain person went on to compose "Kyō naredo wakana mo tsumazu kasugano no waga kogiwataru ura ni nakereba."

The first line, "Obotsukana," means "unclear, uncertain," expressing doubt whether today is truly the Day of the Rat. In the second line, "kyō wa ne no hi ka," "ka" is an interrogative particle. The third line, "ama naraba," posits a condition: if I were a fisherwoman.
In the fourth line, "miru o dani," "miru" is a kind of seaweed, and "dani" means "at least." In the final line, "hikamashi mono o," "mashi" is an auxiliary of counterfactual supposition: I could have pulled it up.
Instead of pulling young pines in the fields on the Day of the Rat, the poem wittily proposes pulling "miru," a seaweed whose name is written with the character for "pine," since they are at sea. In transposing an observance on land to a sea voyage, the forlornness of the traveler seeps through.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Tosa Nikki
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