classic waka stream

妹と来し敏馬の崎を帰るさに
ひとりし見れば涙ぐましも
Roma-ji

Imo to koshi Minume no saki o kaerusa ni hitori shi mireba namidagumashi mo

English Translation
With my wife I came
past the cape of Minume—
now on my way back,
when I see it all alone,
my eyes brim over with tears.
Meaning
On the way home, seeing all alone the cape of Minume that I passed with my wife, my eyes fill with tears.
Commentary
Book Three Elegies 449

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Five poems composed by the Governor-General of Dazaifu, Lord Ōtomo, when setting out for the capital in the twelfth month of winter, Tenpyō 2, the year kanoe-uma"
This is the fourth of the five poems composed on the way to the capital. Seeing alone, on the way back, Cape Minume that he passed with his wife on the way out, he is moved to tears. "With my wife I came" and "when I see it all alone" are set against each other, sharpening the loneliness of the homeward road without her. The left note to the next poem says these two were composed on the day of passing Cape Minume.
In the twelfth month of winter in Tenpyō 2 (730), Tabito, appointed Great Counselor and traveling from Dazaifu to the capital, saw again, alone, the scenes of Tomo Bay and Cape Minume that he had seen with his late wife on the way out, and composed this sequence.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was a son of Ōtomo no Yasumaro. He served as Middle Counselor and Governor-General of Dazaifu before rising to Great Counselor, and died in Tenpyō 3 (731). Steeped in Chinese letters, he was at the center of a poetic circle with Yamanoue no Okura and others while serving in Tsukushi.

First line "With my wife I came" means traveling with her.
Second line "past the cape of Minume": a headland in Settsu, around present-day Nada Ward, Kobe.
Third line "now on my way back": sa is a suffix of time.
Fourth line "when I see it all alone": shi is emphatic, contrasting with "with my wife" in the first line.
Fifth line "my eyes brim over with tears": mo is exclamatory.
Author
Ōtomo no Tabito
Source
Manyoshu
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