Shirasaki wa sakiku ari mate ōbune ni makaji shiji nuki mata kaerimimu

白崎は幸くあり待て大船に
真梶しじ貫きまたかへり見む

Roma-ji: Shirasaki wa sakiku ari mate ōbune ni makaji shiji nuki mata kaerimimu
English Translation: O Cape Shirasaki,
wait for us, safe as you are now;
on a mighty ship,
its oars set thick along both sides,
we shall come back to see you.
Meaning: Cape Shirasaki, stay just as you are and wait for us. We will fit a great ship with oars all along its sides and come back once more to see you.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1668

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thirteen poems from the time when the Retired Sovereign and the Late Sovereign made a progress to the province of Kii in the tenth month, winter, of the first year of Taihō, kanoto-ushi"
Delighting in the gleaming white cape, the speaker calls on it to wait unchanged and promises to return by great ship to see it again. It is a poem in praise of the land, pledging a future visit.
This is the second of the thirteen poems from the progress to Kii in the first year of Taihō (701). Shirasaki is a cape in present-day Yura, Hidaka District, Wakayama, known for its white limestone cliffs.

The first line, "O Cape Shirasaki," raises the place name as the one addressed; the name itself, "White Cape," calls up its shining rock.
The second line, "wait for us, safe as you are now," asks the cape to remain unharmed and unchanged, and the poem pauses here. The land is spoken to as though it were a person.
The third line, "on a mighty ship," refers to the great vessel carrying the royal party.
The fourth line, "its oars set thick along both sides," describes oars fixed closely on both flanks. Ma in makaji is a word of praise, and shiji means "many and close together." It is a common Man'yōshū phrase for a great ship setting out in splendor.
The final line, "we shall come back to see you," ends with the volitional mu. It links through the word kaerimi with the last lines of 1720, "when shall I come back to see," and 1733, "I looked back once again."
Source: Manyoshu
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