Moshio yaku ama no taku hi no honoka ni mo waga omou hito o miru yoshi mogana

藻塩焼く海人の焚く火のほのかにも
わが思ふ人を見るよしもがな

Roma-ji: Moshio yaku ama no taku hi no honoka ni mo waga omou hito o miru yoshi mogana
English Translation: Like the fires that burn
where fisherfolk boil seaweed salt,
faint though it may be,
if only there were some way
to see the one I love.
Meaning: Like the fires of the fisherfolk burning seaweed for salt, glimpsed faintly far away, if only I had some way to see the one I love, however faintly.
Commentary: Love Poems 436

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Among poems on love"
As the fires where fisherfolk burn seaweed for salt are seen faintly in the distance, the poet wishes for some way to see his beloved, even faintly. Following the smoke of the preceding poem, it turns to fires on the shore.
The Ruijū text places it in the section of poems found in another manuscript and in printed editions.

Line 1 means "burning seaweed for salt," pouring seawater on seaweed and burning it.
Line 2 means "like the fire the fisherfolk tend," and the first two lines form a preface leading to "faintly"; it takes up the burning in the preceding poem.
Line 3 means "even faintly."
Line 4 means "the one I love."
Line 5: mogana expresses a wish, "if only there were a way to see."
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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