Kumo ni tobu kusuri hamu yo wa miyako miba iyashiki a ga mi mata ochinu beshi

雲に飛ぶ薬食むよは都見ば
いやしき我が身また変若ぬべし

Roma-ji: Kumo ni tobu kusuri hamu yo wa miyako miba iyashiki a ga mi mata ochinu beshi
English Translation: Rather than to take
the elixir that flies to the clouds,
could I see the capital,
even this poor humble self
would surely be young again
Meaning: Better than taking the elixir that flies to the clouds: if only I could see the capital, even this humble self of mine would surely grow young again.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 848

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Supplementary: two poems longing for home"
The poet says that rather than the elixir that flies to the clouds, merely seeing the capital would make even his humble self young again. Where the preceding poem lamented that no elixir could restore youth, this one turns to declare that the capital itself is the cure, voicing intense homesickness.
"Supplementary" in the headnote means poems outside the count of the thirty-two banquet poems; two poems of longing for home are placed right after them. No author is named, but they are generally attributed to Ōtomo no Tabito.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was the son of the Major Counselor Ōtomo no Yasumaro and the father of Ōtomo no Yakamochi. Late in the Jinki era he went down to Tsukushi as Governor-General of Dazaifu, returned to the capital in Tenpyō 2 as Major Counselor, and died the following year. Versed in Chinese letters and Daoist thought, he formed a literary circle at Dazaifu with Yamanoue no Okura and others, known as the Tsukushi poetic circle.

First line, "kumo ni tobu": the same words as the third line of the preceding poem, linking the pair.
Second line, "kusuri hamu yo wa": "yo wa" means "rather than": rather than taking the elixir.
Third line, "miyako miba": "if I could see the capital."
Fourth line, "iyashiki a ga mi": humbly speaking of his own aged, declining self.
Fifth line, "mata ochinu beshi": answering the preceding poem's "could I ever be young again?", it reverses the rhetorical question into the confident "nu beshi": seeing the capital would surely make him young.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito (attributed)
Source: Manyoshu
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