Hayahito no seto no iwao mo ayu hashiru yoshino no taki ni nao shikazukeri

隼人の瀬戸の巌も鮎走る
吉野の滝になほしかずけり

Roma-ji: Hayahito no seto no iwao mo ayu hashiru yoshino no taki ni nao shikazukeri
English Translation: Of the Hayato,
even the crags of the strait—
where the sweetfish dart,
to Yoshino's rushing stream
they still fall short, I find
Meaning: Even the great crags of the Hayato strait, I find, still fall short of the rapids of Yoshino, where the sweetfish dart.
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 960

Headnote: "A poem composed by Lord Ōtomo, the Governor-General, thinking from afar of the detached palace at Yoshino"
This poem, composed while thinking from afar of the detached palace at Yoshino, says that even the famed great crags of the Hayato strait fall short of the rapids of Yoshino where sweetfish dart. Tabito, stationed in Tsukushi as Governor-General of the Dazaifu, is recalling with longing the land of Yoshino near the capital.
The Hayato strait was a channel in the province of Satsuma, thought to be the Kuronoseto strait between Nagashima and the Kyūshū mainland in today's Kagoshima Prefecture. By declaring Yoshino finer even than the grand scenery of the frontier, the poet expresses his yearning for Yoshino, and through it his homesickness for the capital.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was the son of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and the father of Yakamochi. In Yōrō 4 (720) he served as General Bearing the Imperial Sword for the Subjugation of the Hayato, putting down their rebellion. Toward the end of the Jinki era he went down to Tsukushi as Governor-General of the Dazaifu, and in Tenpyō 2 (730) he became a Major Counselor and returned to the capital.

"Yoshino's rushing stream" in this poem echoes the Yoshino progress poems of Yōrō 7 at the head of this book, above all "the river bend of the rapids can never be gazed upon enough" in 909 of this book. The torrent of Yoshino praised at the opening of the book reappears here, recalled from far-off Tsukushi.
The first line, "Of the Hayato," refers to the land of the Hayato people of southern Kyūshū, a frontier even more remote than Tsukushi.
The second line, "even the crags of the strait," refers to the great crags of the channel. The particle "mo," "even," carries the sense "famous though the scene may be."
The third line, "where the sweetfish dart," conjures the clear stream of the Yoshino River and modifies "Yoshino" in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "to Yoshino's rushing stream," refers to the torrent of the Yoshino River. In ancient Japanese, "taki" meant not a waterfall plunging into a basin but a swiftly rushing stream.
The final line, "they still fall short, I find," means "they still do not measure up," with "shiku," "to equal," and "-keri," an exclamatory auxiliary. Answering the "mo" of the second line, it states firmly the poet's deep attachment to Yoshino, having weighed it against a famous scene.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito
Source: Manyoshu
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