Momokuma no michi wa kinishi o mata sara ni yasoshima sugite wakare ka yukamu

百隈の道は来にしをまたさらに
八十島過ぎて別れか行かむ

Roma-ji: Momokuma no michi wa kinishi o mata sara ni yasoshima sugite wakare ka yukamu
English Translation: A road of countless
bends I have already come,
and yet still further
past the eighty islands now
must I part from home and go?
Meaning: I have already come down a road of a hundred bends, and must I go further still, past countless islands, parting ever farther from home?
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4349

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
I have come down a road of a hundred bends, and must I go further, past eighty islands, parting from home? The poem laments as the sea route from Naniwa lies ahead. It is the third poem from Kazusa; the feeling that after a long land journey a sea journey still awaits is expressed by contrasting the many "bends" and the many "islands."
The author, Osakabe no Mino, is recorded as an assistant guard from Kazusa; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "momokuma no," "of a hundred bends," shows the long land route from Kazusa to Naniwa.
The second line, "michi wa kinishi o," uses the concessive o: though I have come so far.
The third line, "mata sara ni," "and further still," stresses the endless journey.
The fourth line, "yasoshima sugite," "passing eighty islands," pairs with the "hundred bends" of the first line, setting the land and sea distances side by side.
The closing line, "wakare ka yukamu," uses the interrogative ka, resolved by the attributive mu, lamenting that he goes ever farther from home.
Author: Osakabe no Mino
Source: Manyoshu
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