Oki kakete yae no shioji o yuku fune wa hoka ni zo kikishi hatsukari no koe

沖かけて八重の潮路を行く船は
ほかにぞ聞きし初雁の声

Roma-ji: Oki kakete yae no shioji o yuku fune wa hoka ni zo kikishi hatsukari no koe
English Translation: On the boat that sails
out across the many-layered
pathways of the tide,
somewhere quite apart I heard
the voices of the first geese.
Meaning: On the boat sailing out over the many-layered sea-roads, I heard the cries of the first wild geese of the year in a place quite unlike any other.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 419

Headnote: "First wild geese heard aboard a boat"
The topic is hearing the first wild geese aboard a boat; the character in the headnote seems to stand for the one meaning boat. On a boat sailing out across the far sea-roads layered one upon another, the poet heard the first geese of autumn in a place quite unlike the land where he usually hears them. The poem conveys the rarity of hearing the first geese at sea and the loneliness of the traveller.
After the poems on the moon of the road, poems on wild geese follow from here. Setting the first cries of the geese that arrive from the north in autumn within a sea journey, the poem forms a bridge from the travel poems to the poems on geese.

First line, “oki kakete”: heading out toward the open sea.
Second line, “yae no shioji o”: the far sea-roads layered one upon another.
Third line, “yuku fune wa”: on the boat sailing on, singled out by wa.
Fourth line, “hoka ni zo kikishi”: heard in another place than usual; zo is answered by shi, the attributive of the past auxiliary ki.
Fifth line, “hatsukari no koe”: ending on a noun, the cries of the first geese of the year.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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