Ōsaka o uchiidete mireba ōmi no umi shirayūbana ni nami tachiwataru

逢坂をうち出でて見れば近江の海
白木綿花に波立ちわたる

Roma-ji: Ōsaka o uchiidete mireba ōmi no umi shirayūbana ni nami tachiwataru
English Translation: Coming out beyond
the Ōsaka pass, I gaze:
the Sea of Ōmi—
like flowers of white mulberry cloth
the waves rise all across it
Meaning: When I come out past the Ōsaka slope and look, across the whole Sea of Ōmi the waves rise like white flowers of mulberry cloth.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Miscellaneous Poems 3238

Headnote: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to the chōka (3237). It likens the white waves of Lake Biwa, opening before the eyes beyond the Ōsaka pass, to white mulberry-fiber flowers used in Shinto rites. The chōka, a variant from a certain text, sings of a journey—past Nara Hill, across the Uji River, making an offering at the Ōsaka pass—toward Ōmi, traveling alone and longing to see the beloved. The envoy vividly captures the view at journey’s end, conveying the release of crossing the pass. Like Yamabe no Akahito’s “coming out from Tago Bay” (Book Three, 318), it belongs to the type that sings the moment a view opens out.
The poet is unknown. Book Thirteen is built mainly of anonymous chōka and their envoys, and many of its poems preserve the air of old songs and ritual verse.

The first line, “Ōsaka o,” refers to Ōsaka Hill on the border of Yamashiro and Ōmi, the pass where the traveler made his offering in the chōka.
In the second line, “uchi” is a prefix of vigorous movement, capturing the sudden widening of the view once the pass is crossed.
The third line, “Ōmi no umi,” is Lake Biwa; the poem breaks here, naming the scene before the eyes.
In the fourth line, “shirayūbana” is white mulberry-fiber cloth shaped into flowers, used as a figure for the white waves; the particle “ni” means “like.”
The closing line, “nami tachiwataru,” means the waves rise over the whole expanse, “wataru” spreading the scene across the entire lake.
Source: Manyoshu
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