Ama no hara furisake mireba kasuga naru mikasa no yama ni ideshi tsuki kamo - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

天の原ふりさけ見れば春日なる
三笠の山に出でし月かも

Roma-ji: Ama no hara furisake mireba kasuga naru mikasa no yama ni ideshi tsuki kamo
English Translation: Gazing far across
the wide plain of heaven, I see—
is it the same moon
that rose over Mount Mikasa
at Kasuga, long ago?
Meaning: When I lift my eyes and gaze far across the open sky, the moon has risen. It is the very same moon, I realize, that once rose over Mount Mikasa at Kasuga, back in my homeland.
Commentary: Book Nine Travel Poems 406

Headnote: "Composed on seeing the moon in China"; left note: "It is told that long ago Nakamaro was sent to China to study, and for many years he was unable to return. When another envoy arrived from this country, he set out intending to go home with them. At a place called Mingzhou, on the seashore, the people of that land held a farewell banquet for him. Night fell, and the moon rose most beautifully; seeing it, he composed this poem."
Gazing at the moon rising in a foreign sky, the poet recalls the moon he watched over Mount Mikasa at Kasuga in his youth. A single moon links the sky of Tang China with the hills of home, and in a few plain words the poem holds the long years of separation and the emotion of a man about to return.
According to the left note, Nakamaro, sent to Tang China to study, had long been unable to come home; he planned to return with a newly arrived Japanese embassy, and the people of Tang gave him a farewell banquet on the shore at Mingzhou. That night he saw the moon rise and composed this poem. In fact his ship was wrecked, and Nakamaro went back to Chang'an, ending his life in China.
Placed at the head of the book of travel poems, this voice from the most distant land sets the keynote of longing for home that runs through the whole book. It is also included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu and remains one of the best-loved poems in Japan.
Abe no Nakamaro was a student sent with an embassy to Tang China in the Nara period. He went to China in the third year of Reiki, served Emperor Xuanzong under the name Chao Heng, and befriended poets such as Li Bai and Wang Wei. His name is also written 阿倍仲麻呂.

The first line, "the plain of heaven," means the wide sky, and from the very first words the view opens outward.
The second line, "gazing far," means lifting one's eyes to look into the distance. "Mireba" is the realis form with "ba," marking a completed condition: having looked, the poet discovers the risen moon.
The third line, "at Kasuga," means "that is at Kasuga"; "naru" is the attributive form of the auxiliary "nari" expressing location. This is the pivot where thought turns from the foreign sky to a place name of home.
The fourth line names Mount Mikasa behind the Kasuga Shrine. Envoys to China are said to have worshipped the gods at Kasuga before departure, so the mountain is tied to the memory of setting out. Because 420 and 421 at the end of this book sing of Mount Tamuke in Nara, the book opens and closes with the hills of Nara.
In the final line, "shi" is the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki," recalling the moon seen long ago, and "kamo" is an exclamatory particle: the poet is deeply moved to find that the moon before him is the very same moon.
Author: Abe no Nakamaro
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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