Sora kazou ōtsu no ko ga aishi hi ni ōni mishikaba ima zo kuyashiki

そら数ふ大津の子が逢ひし日に
おほに見しかば今ぞ悔しき

Roma-ji: Sora kazou ōtsu no ko ga aishi hi ni ōni mishikaba ima zo kuyashiki
English Translation: Counted by the sky,
the maiden of Ōtsu I met—
on that day we met,
I looked on her so idly—
now how I regret it all!
Meaning: On the day I met the maiden of Ōtsu, I looked at her only idly; now how bitterly I regret it!
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 219

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems composed by Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro at the time of the death of the palace attendant from Kibitsu, two short poems"
He regrets, now that she is dead, having looked only idly at the attendant from Ōtsu on the day they met.
These are elegies Kakinomoto no Hitomaro composed at the death of the palace attendant from Kibitsu, two short poems appended to the long poem 217. She was an attendant who came to serve at court from the province of Kibi, and the long poem speaks of her having had a husband. She seems to have died at the waterside of Shiga harbor, and some take it that she drowned herself. This is the second of those two short poems.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. A master of the long poem and the elegy, he is the representative poet of the Man'yōshū and was later revered as the Saint of Poetry.

The first line, "sora kazou," is a pillow word for Ōtsu, said to connect through the sound ō from the sense of counting roughly, off the top of one's head.
In the second line, "ōtsu no ko ga," Ōtsu is the same harbor in Ōmi as the Shigatsu of the preceding poem, and the phrase refers to the attendant from Kibitsu. It is one syllable short, with six.
The third line, "aishi hi ni," means "on the day we met."
In the fourth line, "ōni mishikaba," ōni means vaguely or carelessly, and shikaba is a past condition: because I looked at her idly.
In the final line, "ima zo kuyashiki," zo is a binding particle concluding in the attributive kuyashiki: now I regret it.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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