Amazakaru hina no nagachi yu koikureba Akashi no to yori Yamatoshima miyu

天離る鄙の長道ゆ恋ひ来れば
明石の門より大和島見ゆ

Roma-ji: Amazakaru hina no nagachi yu koikureba Akashi no to yori Yamatoshima miyu
English Translation: Heaven-distant far,
along the long country road
I came, yearning home—
and from the strait of Akashi
the isle of Yamato shows.
Meaning: Coming home along the long road from the far-off provinces, yearning all the way, I see from the strait of Akashi the mountains of Yamato rising like an island.
Commentary: Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 255

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Eight travel poems by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro"
This is the seventh of the eight travel poems, composed on the way home. Having come a long way yearning for home, the traveler reaches the Akashi strait and sees the mountains of Yamato floating like an island on the sea. Answering "not seeing where it lies" in the preceding poem, the sorrow of parting on the outward voyage turns into the joy of return. It is famed as the finest of Hitomaro's travel poems. At the end of the original text there is a note of variant, "One text says: where my home lies comes in sight"; here the main text, "the isle of Yamato shows," is followed.
The eight travel poems form a sequence tracing, place by place, a sea voyage west from Naniwa through the Inland Sea and back toward Yamato. The first of them, poem 249, has a lower half whose reading is unresolved.
The poet, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active from the reign of Jitō to that of Monmu. Master of both long and short poems, he was later revered as the "Saint of Poetry." His rank was low, and much of his life remains obscure.

First line "Heaven-distant far" is amazakaru, a pillow word for hina, the far provinces.
Second line "along the long country road": hina is the remote countryside and nagachi a long road; yu marks the route taken.
Third line "I came, yearning home" means traveling on while longing for home.
Fourth line "from the strait of Akashi": to is a strait, the same place as the "great strait of Akashi" in the preceding poem.
Fifth line "the isle of Yamato shows": Yamatoshima is the Yamato mountains seen from the sea like an island. Its miyu ("comes in sight") answers the preceding poem's mizu, ending in the joy of homecoming. The variant reads "where my home lies comes in sight."
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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