Aonami ni sode sae nurete kogu fune no kashi furu hoto ni sayo fukenamu ka

青波に袖さへ濡れて漕ぐ舟の
かし振るほとにさ夜更けなむか

Roma-ji: Aonami ni sode sae nurete kogu fune no kashi furu hoto ni sayo fukenamu ka
English Translation: In the deep blue waves
even my sleeves are drenched as
I row on my boat;
while I drive the mooring stake
will the night grow late and pass?
Meaning: Rowing my boat through the blue waves till even my sleeves are soaked, will the night grow late while I drive in the stake to moor it?
Commentary: Book Twenty Miscellaneous Poems 4313

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems on the Tanabata festival, eight poems."
Will the night grow late while I drive the stake to moor the boat I row, sleeves soaked by the waves? The poem sings of the Herdsman's haste on his way across the River of Heaven. The left note says Ōtomo no Yakamochi composed these alone, gazing up at the River of Heaven, and this is the last of the eight. The set alternates waiting, the grief of separation, and the joy of meeting, and closes with the crossing.
The author, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, son of Ōtomo no Tabito, was at this time Junior Assistant Minister of Military Affairs.

The first line, "aonami ni," treats the River of Heaven as a sea and calls its waves blue.
The second line, "sode sae nurete," uses sae, "even": "even my sleeves are wet," showing the hardship of the crossing.
The third line, "kogu fune no," refers to the Herdsman's boat and runs on into the fourth line.
The fourth line, "kashi furu hoto ni," names the kashi, a stake for mooring a boat: "while I drive it in." Hoto means "the time while."
The closing line, "sayo fukenamu ka," with the perfective na and conjectural mu, worries that the night will be over. Like "the moon has sunk" two poems earlier, it shows the passing of time in the last line.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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