Hikoboshi no tsumamukaebune kogizurashi ama no kawara ni kiri no tateru wa

彦星の妻迎へ舟漕ぎ出らし
天の川原に霧の立てるは

Roma-ji: Hikoboshi no tsumamukaebune kogizurashi ama no kawara ni kiri no tateru wa
English Translation: It seems the Herdsman's
boat to go and fetch his wife
has been rowed away,
for over the riverbed of Heaven
the mist is rising now
Meaning: The Herdsman's boat to fetch his wife seems to have set out, for mist is rising over the riverbed of Heaven.
Commentary: Book Eight Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 1527

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twelve poems on the Tanabata festival by Yamanoue no Omi Okura"
Seeing mist rise over the riverbed of Heaven, the poet surmises that the Herdsman has rowed out in his boat to fetch his wife. It is a lovely poem of imagination that sees the rising mist as the spray thrown up by the oars.
The author, Yamanoue no Okura, was an official and poet of the early Nara period. He went to Tang China as a member of an embassy and later became governor of Chikuzen. He is known for poems that look closely at human life and society.

The first line names the Herdsman star.
The second line names the boat that goes to fetch his wife, the Weaver Maiden.
The third line, with the inferential "rashi," surmises that it has been rowed out, and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line means "on the riverbed of the River of Heaven."
The final line, the attributive of the continuative "ri" with "wa," gives by inversion the grounds for the inference: that mist is rising. The next poem sings of the Weaver Maiden waiting for him amid haze on the same riverbed, so the one who goes to fetch and the one who waits form a pair.
Author: Yamanoue no Okura
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Tamakagiru honoka ni miete wakarenaba motona ya koimu au toki made wa
Next Poem: Kasumi tatsu ama no kawara ni kimi matsu to iyuki kaeru ni mo no suso nurenu