Ōbune ni makaji shijinuki unahara o kogidete wataru tsukihito otoko

大船に真楫しじ貫き海原を
漕ぎ出て渡る月人壮士

Roma-ji: Ōbune ni makaji shijinuki unahara o kogidete wataru tsukihito otoko
English Translation: On a great ship
with oars set thick on both sides,
across the wide sea
rowing out he makes his way,
the young man of the moon
Meaning: With oars set thick along both sides of his great ship, he rows out across the wide sea of the sky: the young man of the moon.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3611

Headnote: "A poem on Tanabata"
A Tanabata poem likening the moon crossing the night sky to a young man rowing a great ship across the sea. A left note reads "the above is a poem by Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro," attributing it to him. With the grand conceit of the heavens as a sea and the moon as a man rowing a boat, it captures the sky on the night of Tanabata. Because the voyaging travelers recited this poem, their own sea journey is overlaid with the crossing in the heavens. The phrase "ōbune ni makaji shijinuki" also appears in the chōka 3627 and in 3679 of this book.
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 is one of Hitomaro's that the travelers recited on their journey.

First line, "ōbune ni": on a great ship, imagining a vessel that carries the moon across the sky.
Second line, "makaji shijinuki": "makaji" are oars set evenly on both sides of a ship, and "shijinuku" means to fit many of them. 3679 of this book has the same line.
Third line, "unahara o": the sky is likened to the wide sea.
Fourth line, "kogidete wataru": rowing out and crossing, the slow passage of the moon across the night sky.
Fifth line, "tsukihito otoko": a word likening the moon to a young man; ending on a noun, it leaves the image of the moon crossing the heavens.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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