Yaoka yuku hama no manago mo aga koi ni ani masaraji ka okitsu shimamori

八百日行く浜の真砂も我が恋に
あにまさらじか沖つ島守

Roma-ji: Yaoka yuku hama no manago mo aga koi ni ani masaraji ka okitsu shimamori
English Translation: Eight hundred days' walk,
all the sands along that shore,
could they, set beside
the vastness of my longing,
be greater, O island guard
Meaning: Could all the sands of a shore so long it takes eight hundred days to walk surpass the greatness of my love? Tell me, keeper of the island in the offing.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 596

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twenty-four poems sent by Lady Kasa to Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi"
Could even the sands of a beach so long it takes eight hundred days to walk outnumber her love? She puts the question to the keeper of an island in the offing. Comparing countless grains of sand with her longing, it is a bold hyperbole. The island guard is addressed as one who knows the sands of the shore well.
The author, Lady Kasa, was a woman poet of the Nara period who sent many love poems to Ōtomo no Yakamochi. Little else is known of her.

First line, "Eight hundred days' walk," means a shore it would take eight hundred days to travel, an endless beach.
Second line, "all the sands along that shore," names manago, fine sand, the very type of what cannot be counted.
Third line, "could they, set beside," means compared with my love, giving the standard of comparison.
Fourth line, "the vastness of my longing," uses the rhetorical adverb ani, the negative conjectural ji, and ka: how could they surpass it? Surely not.
Fifth line, "be greater, O island guard," calls out to the keeper of the offshore island, ending on a noun.
Author: Lady Kasa
Source: Manyoshu
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