Sayonaka to yo wa fukenu rashi kari ga ne no kikoyuru sora yu tsuki wataru miyu

さ夜中と夜は更けぬらし雁が音の
聞こゆる空ゆ月渡る見ゆ

Roma-ji: Sayonaka to yo wa fukenu rashi kari ga ne no kikoyuru sora yu tsuki wataru miyu
English Translation: "It is midnight now"—
so deep, it seems, the night has grown;
where the wild geese call
across the sky I hear them in,
I see the moon go sailing by.
Meaning: The night seems to have deepened to midnight. Across the sky where I hear the wild geese calling, I can see the moon passing over.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1701

Headnote: "Three poems presented to Prince Yuge"
Watching the moon cross a sky filled with the cries of wild geese, the poet realizes that the night has grown deep. Layering sound and light, it presents a still, clear autumn night and is known as one of the finest poems of the Hitomaro Collection.
This is the first of three poems presented to Prince Yuge. Following 1699 and 1700, it again takes up wild geese, so that goose poems are arranged in succession.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Jitō and Monmu. This poem is taken from the Hitomaro Collection, which is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he gathered. Prince Yuge was a son of Emperor Tenmu and died in the third year of Monmu (699).

The first line, "it is midnight now," uses sa as a prefix that smooths the rhythm.
The second line, "so deep, it seems, the night has grown," joins the perfective nu with the conjecture rashi, and the poem pauses here.
The third line, "where the wild geese call," refers to the cries of the geese.
The fourth line, "across the sky I hear them in," uses yu to mark the path of passage.
The final line, "I see the moon go sailing by," sets miyu, "is seen," against kikoyuru, "is heard," in the fourth line, pairing hearing and sight and giving the grounds for rashi in the second line.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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