熟田津尓 船乗世武登 月待者 潮毛可奈比沼 今者許藝乞菜
熟田津に船乗りせむと月待てば潮もかなひぬ今は漕ぎ出でな
| nigitatu ni puna norisemu to tuki mateba sipo mo kanapinu ima pa kogi’ide na | From Nigitatsu Would we set sail, and Did await the moon, but With the tides against us Now must we go a’rowing! |
Princess Nukata
額田王
grasping
cosmic waka
I wake up
All’s rolling
for
a new day
The romaji reading seems wrong unless they read it really strangely back then:
nigitatsu ni
funa nori semu to
tsuki mateba
shio mo kanainu
ima wa kogi ide na
Yes, the transcription here is an approximation of how the poem would have been read in old Japanese. If I was being strictly accurate, I’d also need to indicate vowel differences as there were more vowels in the language then, too.