Asatoko ni kikeba harukeshi Imizukawa asakogi shitsutsu utau funabito

朝床に聞けば遥けし射水川
朝漕ぎしつつ唄ふ舟人

Roma-ji: Asatoko ni kikeba harukeshi Imizukawa asakogi shitsutsu utau funabito
English Translation: In my morning bed
I listen—how far away—
on the Imizu River,
rowing up in the morning,
the boatmen as they sing
Meaning: Lying in bed this morning I listen, and it sounds so far away: the singing of boatmen rowing up the Imizu River in the early light.
Commentary: Book Nineteen 4150

Headnote: "A poem on hearing from afar the song of boatmen rowing up the river"
Lying in bed in the morning, the poet hears, far off, the singing of boatmen rowing up the Imizu River. In the stillness of listening to unseen distant voices, the broad, relaxed landscape of a morning in Etchū unfolds.
The Imizu River corresponds to the present Oyabe River, which flowed into the sea near Fushiki, where the provincial headquarters of Etchū stood. The poem closes, with a bright morning scene, the sequence of spring poems that began on the first day of the third month.
The poet, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was the son of the Grand Counselor Ōtomo no Tabito. From 746 he served as Governor of Etchū, living at the provincial headquarters in what is now Fushiki, Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture. He is regarded as the leading poet of the Nara period and is thought to have played a central role in compiling the Man'yōshū.

First line, "asatoko ni" (in my morning bed), sets the scene and shows the poet listening as he lies there.
Second line, "kikeba harukeshi" (when I listen, it is far away): there is a break here, after the second line.
Third line, "Imizukawa" (the Imizu River), names the river flowing near the provincial headquarters and identifies where the distant voices come from.
Fourth line, "asakogi shitsutsu" (rowing in the morning), repeats the word "asa" (morning) from the first line, strengthening the morning scene.
Fifth line, "utau funabito" (the boatmen singing), ends on a noun, revealing only at the close the source of the distance named in the second line, in an inverted structure.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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