[Footnote 10:  Kag[’e]ro[:i] is an obsolete form of kag[’e]r[=o], meaning an ephemera.]

    [Methinks that Hikoboshi must be rowing his boat to meet his
    wife,—­for a mist (as of oar-spray) is rising over the course
    of the Heavenly Stream.]

    Kasumi tatsu
  Ama-no-Kawara ni,
    Kimi matsu to,—­
  Ikay[=o] hodo ni
  Mono-suso nurenu.

    [While awaiting my lord on the misty shore of the River of
    Heaven, the skirts of my robe have somehow become wet.]

    Amanogawa,
  Mi-tsu no nami oto
    Sawagu-nari: 
  Waga matsu-kimi no
  Funad[’e]-surashi mo.

    [On the River of Heaven, at the place of the august
    ferry, the sound of the water has become loud:  perhaps my
    long-awaited lord will soon be coming in his boat.]

    Tanabata no
  Sod[’e] maku yo[:i] no
    Akatoki wa,
  Kawas[’e] no tazu wa
  Nakazu to mo yoshi.

    [As Tanabata (slumbers) with her long sleeves rolled up,
    until the reddening of the dawn, do not, O storks of the
    river-shallows, awaken her by your cries.[11]]

[Footnote 11:  Lit., “not to cry out (will be) good”—­but a literal translation of the poem is scarcely possible.]

    Amanogawa
  Kiri-tachi-wataru: 
    Ky[=o], ky[=o], to—­
  Waga matsu-ko[:i]shi
  Funad[’e]-surashi!

    [(She sees that) a mist is spreading across the River of
    Heaven....  “To-day, to-day,” she thinks, “my long-awaited lord
    will probably come over in his boat."]

    Amanogawa,
  Yasu no watari ni,
    Fun[’e] uk[’e]t[’e];—­
  Waga tachi-matsu to
  Imo ni tsug[’e] koso.

    [By the ferry of Yasu, on the River of Heaven, the boat is
    floating:  I pray you tell my younger sister[12] that I stand
    here and wait.]

[Footnote 12:  That is to say, “wife.”  In archaic Japanese the word imo signified both “wife” and “younger sister.”  The term might also be rendered “darling” or “beloved.”]

    [=O]-sora yo
  Kay[=o] war[’e] sura,
    Na ga yu[’e] ni,
  Amanokawa-ji no
  Nazumit[’e] zo koshi.

    [Though I (being a Star-god) can pass freely to and fro,
    through the great sky,—­yet to cross over the River of Heaven,
    for your sake, was weary work indeed!]

    Yachihoko no
  Kami no mi-yo yori
    Tomoshi-zuma;—­
  Hito-shiri ni keri
  Tsugit[’e]shi omo[:e]ba.

[From the august Age of the God-of-Eight-Thousand-Spears,[13] she had been my spouse in secret[14] only; yet now, because of my constant longing for her, our relation has become known to men.]

[Footnote 13:  Yachihoko-no-Kami, who has many other names, is the Great God of Izumo, and is commonly known by his appellation Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami, or the “Deity-Master-of-the Great-Land.”  He is locally worshiped also as the god of marriage,—­for which reason, perhaps, the poet thus refers to him.]