Unahara ni kasumi tanabiki tazu ga ne no kanashiki yoi wa kunihe shi omōyu

海原に霞たなびき鶴が音の
悲しき宵は国辺し思ほゆ

Roma-ji: Unahara ni kasumi tanabiki tazu ga ne no kanashiki yoi wa kunihe shi omōyu
English Translation: Over the sea plain
the spring haze trails and lingers;
on an evening when
the cranes' cries sound so sad,
my thoughts turn toward my home
Meaning: On evenings when haze trails over the sea and the cries of the cranes sound sorrowful, my thoughts go out to my home province.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4399

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," followed by "A poem with tanka composed setting forth thoughts in the person of a frontier guard."
On evenings when haze trails over the sea and the cranes cry sadly, my thoughts turn home: speaking as a guard, the poem sings of homesickness. According to the headnote, it is the first envoy to a long poem (4398 in this book) in which Yakamochi set forth thoughts in a guard's place, and the left note dates it to the nineteenth day of the second month. It entrusts the evening mood of guards waiting at Naniwa to sail to a spring waterside scene of haze and the cries of cranes.
The author, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, son of Ōtomo no Tabito, was at this time Junior Assistant Minister of Military Affairs.

The first line, "unahara ni," refers to the sea at Naniwa, where the guards waited to sail.
The second line, "kasumi tanabiki," the spring haze trailing out, is a scene that sets home far away.
The third line, "tazu ga ne no," the cry of cranes, has a plaintive sound.
The fourth line, "kanashiki yoi wa," means "on evenings when they sound so sad."
The closing line, "kunihe shi omōyu," with the intensifier shi: my thoughts keep turning home. The next poem also sings of cranes and spring haze, so the two share the same scene.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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