classic waka stream

近江の海夕波千鳥汝が鳴けば
心もしのにいにしへ思ほゆ
Roma-ji

Ōmi no umi yūnami chidori na ga nakeba kokoro mo shino ni inishie omooyu

English Translation
O sea of Ōmi,
plovers on the evening waves,
when you cry like this,
my heart droops and wilts away,
and the days of old come back.
Meaning
Plovers over the evening waves of the lake of Ōmi, when you cry, my heart sinks and bends, and the days of long ago rise up in my mind.
Commentary
Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 266

Headnote: "A poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro"
Calling out to plovers crying over the evening waves of Lake Biwa, the poet remembers the days when Emperor Tenji's Ōmi Ōtsu palace flourished. The evening lake, the waves, and the plovers' voices overlap, and grief for the vanished capital resounds in a deep afterglow. "Evening-wave plovers" is said to be Hitomaro's own coinage, and the poem echoes his poems on the ruined Ōmi capital in Book One.
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 "O sea of Ōmi" means Lake Biwa; the line has one syllable too many.
Second line "plovers on the evening waves" is a condensed compound of nouns, plovers flying in flocks over the evening waves.
Third line "when you cry like this" addresses the plovers as "you." Poem 371 in this book likewise calls to plovers, "when you cry," in a poem of longing for home, sharing the same device.
Fourth line "my heart droops and wilts away": shino ni means until the heart wilts, deeply and pensively.
Fifth line "the days of old come back": omooyu means to come to mind unbidden, ending with the glory of the old Ōtsu palace remembered of itself.
Author
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source
Manyoshu
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