Kokoro yu mo wa wa omowazuki yamakawa mo hedataranaku ni kaku koimu to wa

心ゆも我は思はずき山川も
隔たらなくにかく恋ひむとは

Roma-ji: Kokoro yu mo wa wa omowazuki yamakawa mo hedataranaku ni kaku koimu to wa
English Translation: Never in my heart
did I think it would be so;
no mountain, no stream
lies between us, and yet here
I am longing for you so
Meaning: Never in my heart did I imagine that, with no mountains or rivers between us, I would come to long for you like this.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 601

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twenty-four poems sent by Lady Kasa to Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi"
With no mountains or rivers between them, she never dreamed she would long for him like this. It expresses in surprise the pain of being near yet unable to meet. Poem 609 in this book begins with the same two lines, "never in my heart did I think," so the same words of lament recur within the series.
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, "Never in my heart," uses yu, an old particle of origin, answering the negative: not even in my heart.
Second line, "did I think it would be so," uses the past ki: I did not think. The poem breaks after this line.
Third line, "no mountain, no stream," names the things that part people.
Fourth line, "lies between us, and yet here," means though they do not separate us.
Fifth line, "I am longing for you so," means that I should long like this, returning by inversion to the second line.
Author: Lady Kasa
Source: Manyoshu
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