Waga seko wa izuku yuku ramu okitsu mo no nabari no yama o kyō ka koyu ramu

我が背子はいづく行くらむ沖つ藻の
名張の山を今日か越ゆらむ

Roma-ji: Waga seko wa izuku yuku ramu okitsu mo no nabari no yama o kyō ka koyu ramu
English Translation: My dear husband now—
where might he be journeying?
Like weed of the deep,
hidden, the hills of Nabari—
is he crossing them today?
Meaning: Where might my husband be traveling now? Is he perhaps crossing the hills of Nabari today?
Commentary: Book One Miscellaneous Poems 43

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When the Empress journeyed to Ise Province: a poem composed by the wife of Taima no Mahito Maro"
A wife's poem worrying over her husband, who has left on the journey to Ise: where is he now, and is he crossing the hills of Nabari today? As a poem by one left behind thinking of a traveler, it echoes Hitomaro's three preceding poems, and its simple, heartfelt concern for her husband is deeply moving. The same poem also appears as poem 511 in Book Four.
The author was the wife of Taima no Mahito Maro, and her name has not come down to us. Her husband is likewise unknown, save that he attended Empress Jitō's journey to Ise.

The first line uses seko, a woman's fond word for her husband or lover, to name the husband far away on the road.
In the second line, ramu is present conjecture: "where might he be going now?" The poem breaks here.
The third line, okitsu mo no, "like weed of the offing," is a pillow word for Nabari, homophonous with nabaru, "to be hidden," since seaweed lies hidden beneath the water.
The fourth line names the hills of Nabari in Iga Province, present-day Nabari in Mie Prefecture, on the road from Yamato to Ise.
In the last line, the questioning particle ka is answered by the attributive of the conjectural ramu in a kakari-musubi. Repeating ramu in the second and last lines, she follows her unseen husband's road again and again in her mind.
Author: Wife of Taima no Mahito Maro
Source: Manyoshu
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