On the fourteeth day of the Second Month, when Senior Assistant Lieutenant Okinagara no Mahito of the Senior Seventh Rank, Upper Grade, was sent to Kunishima as a gubernatorial messenger concerning the changing of the border guard in Hitachi province.
asigara no
misaka tamapari
kaperimizu
are pa kueyuku
arasi wo mo
tasi ya habakaru
puwa no seki
kuete wa pa yuku
muma no tume
tukusi no saki ni
timariwite
ware pa ipapamu
moromoro pa
sakeku to mawosu
kaperiku made
In Ashigara,
Misaka will I pass through
Never looking back
Will I go on;
A rough man
Cannot pass
The barrier of Fuwa
But I will go on;
My horse’s hooves
At the point of Tsukushi
Will I halt, and
There take my ease;
To all of you:
I wish you well
Until I return again!