Amazakaru hina no nagachi o koikureba Akashi no to yori ie no atari miyu

天離る鄙の長道を恋ひ来れば
明石の門より家のあたり見ゆ

Roma-ji: Amazakaru hina no nagachi o koikureba Akashi no to yori ie no atari miyu
English Translation: From the far-off lands
beneath the distant sky
longing, I have come;
through the strait of Akashi
I see where my home lies
Meaning: Longing for home along the long road from the far country beneath distant skies, I see through the strait of Akashi where my home lies.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3608

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Old poems recited to suit the place"
Coming along the long road from the far country while longing for home, he sees where his home lies from the strait of Akashi. According to the left note, in Hitomaro's poem the last line reads "Yamatoshima miyu," corresponding to 255 in Book Three. Hitomaro's poem is a song of the journey from the provinces back to the capital, but the travelers recited it on their outward voyage westward, adapting it, it seems, as a song of homesickness looking back toward their receding homes.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, active as a court poet in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, and left many fine travel poems and elegies. This poem has come down in a form in which his poem was altered by members of the embassy as they recited it.
According to the headnote, 3602 to 3610 of this book are old poems the travelers recited along the way as suited to the place. Poems not of their own making were thus taken into the travel sequence, showing how people of the time shared old poems and adapted them to the occasion.

First line, "amazakaru": far off as the edge of the sky, a pillow word for "hina" (the provinces).
Second line, "hina no nagachi o": "hina" is the provinces far from the capital, "nagachi" a long road. Hitomaro's poem has "hina no nagachi yu."
Third line, "koikureba": coming while longing for home and the capital, a definite condition.
Fourth line, "Akashi no to yori": "to" (gate) means a strait, here the Akashi Strait, from which the view opens eastward past Awaji Island.
Fifth line, "ie no atari miyu": I see where my home lies. Hitomaro's poem reads "Yamatoshima miyu," likening the mountains of Yamato to an island.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (variant)
Source: Manyoshu
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