Awajishima to wataru fune no kajima ni mo ware wa wasurezu ie o shi zo omou

淡路島門渡る船の楫間にも
我れは忘れず家をしぞ思ふ

Roma-ji: Awajishima to wataru fune no kajima ni mo ware wa wasurezu ie o shi zo omou
English Translation: Through Awaji's straits
the ship makes its way across;
even between strokes
of the oar I don't forget,
it is home I think upon
Meaning: Even in the brief pause between strokes of the oar, as our ship crosses the straits of Awaji, I do not forget—it is my home I keep thinking of.
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3894

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "In the eleventh month, winter, of the second year of Tenpyō, when Lord Ōtomo, Governor-General of Dazaifu, was appointed Major Counselor (while keeping his post as before) and went up to the capital, his attendants took a separate sea route. Grieving over the journey, each set down his heart in these ten poems"
Even in the instant between oar strokes as the ship crosses the straits by Awaji Island, the poet does not forget home—a poem on the unbroken longing for one's household. In 730, when Ōtomo no Tabito, Governor-General of Dazaifu, was appointed Major Counselor and returned to the capital, his attendants traveled separately by sea and set down the sorrows of their voyage in ten poems. It seems to have been composed after sailing east through the Inland Sea to the Awaji straits near the capital, and suggests how longing grows as home draws near.
The left note records the poet's name as unknown; he was one of the attendants of Tabito who traveled to the capital by sea.

First line, "Awajishima": Awaji Island; together with to ("strait") in the next line it likely refers to the Akashi Strait between Awaji and Honshū.
Second line, "to wataru fune no": to means a strait or narrows, a dangerous passage of swift currents.
Third line, "kajima ni mo": the gap between one stroke of the oar and the next—"even in so short a time." The upper three lines serve as a preface giving concrete shape to that brief interval.
Fourth line, "ware wa wasurezu": "I do not forget," a pause that holds back what is not forgotten until the final line, in an inverted construction.
Fifth line, "ie o shi zo omou": shi is an emphatic particle and zo a binding particle answered by the attributive omou. The next poem, 3895, ends with the very same line, so longing for home recurs within the series.
Source: Manyoshu
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