Unahara o yasoshima gakuri kinuredomo Nara no miyako wa wasurekanetsu mo

海原を八十島隠り来ぬれども
奈良の都は忘れかねつも

Roma-ji: Unahara o yasoshima gakuri kinuredomo Nara no miyako wa wasurekanetsu mo
English Translation: Across the wide sea
hidden among countless isles
I have come so far,
and yet Nara, the capital,
I cannot forget
Meaning: I have come far across the wide sea, passing hidden among countless islands, yet I cannot forget Nara, the capital.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3613

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems composed on the night the ship anchored at Nagai Bay in Mitsuki District, Bingo Province"
A poem of homesickness: he has come far, threading among countless islands, yet he cannot forget Nara, the capital. The sense of the capital receding ever farther behind the islands is expressed in "yasoshima gakuri" in the upper phrase. The lower phrase, "Nara no miyako wa wasurekanetsu mo," is the same as the lower phrase of 3618 of this book, made at Nagato Island in Aki, so that the same lament of homesickness recurs at each stage of the journey.
According to the headnote, this is one of three poems composed on the night the ship anchored at Nagai Bay in Mitsuki District, Bingo Province. Nagai Bay is thought to be near Itozaki in present-day Mihara, Hiroshima Prefecture. The first of the three is a sedōka by the senior secretary Mibu no Udamaro; the author of this poem is not named.

First line, "unahara o": across the wide sea; "o" marks the place passed through.
Second line, "yasoshima gakuri": "yasoshima" means countless islands and "gakuri" being hidden, describing the voyage threading behind the islands.
Third line, "kinuredomo": "nure" is the realis of the perfective "nu"; with the adversative "domo" it turns: though I have come so far.
Fourth line, "Nara no miyako wa": the Heijō capital the embassy had left behind.
Fifth line, "wasurekanetsu mo": "kanu" means unable, "tsu" is perfective, and "mo" exclamatory: I cannot forget it. 3618 of this book ends with the same fourth and fifth lines.
Source: Manyoshu
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