Aga kimi wa wake o ba shine to omoe kamo au yo awanu yo futa hashiruramu

我が君はわけをば死ねと思へかも
逢ふ夜逢はぬ夜二走るらむ

Roma-ji: Aga kimi wa wake o ba shine to omoe kamo au yo awanu yo futa hashiruramu
English Translation: You, my lord, my dear,
do you wish this wretch to die,
is that what you think,
that the nights we meet or don't
run two separate ways like this
Meaning: Do you, my dear lord, wish this humble one to die, that the nights you meet me and the nights you do not run off in two directions so?
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 552

Headnote: "A poem by Ōtomo no Sukune Miyori"
To a partner who meets him some nights and not others, the poet complains with mock exaggeration: does she wish him dead? Calling himself wake, a humble term, and her aga kimi, "my lord," he uses language that suggests an intimate, playful relationship.
The author, Ōtomo no Miyori, was an official thought to be a son of Ōtomo no Miyuki, and he once served at the Dazaifu.

First line, "You, my lord, my dear," addresses the other with respect.
Second line, "do you wish this wretch to die," uses wake, a self-deprecating word: that this one should die.
Third line, "is that what you think," joins the perfective form to kamo for a questioning condition: is it because you think so? It is closed by ramu in the fifth line.
Fourth line, "that the nights we meet or don't," sets paired words side by side: the nights you meet me and the nights you do not.
Fifth line, "run two separate ways like this," uses futahashiru, taken to mean to split two ways, with ramu in the attributive closing the kamo construction.
Author: Ōtomo no Miyori
Source: Manyoshu
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