Chikaku areba minedomo aru o iya tōku kimi ga imasaba ari katsu mashiji

近くあれば見ねどもあるをいや遠く
君がいまさば有りかつましじ

Roma-ji: Chikaku areba minedomo aru o iya tōku kimi ga imasaba ari katsu mashiji
English Translation: While you were near me,
I could live though we did not meet;
now that farther still
you will dwell away from me,
I could not go on living
Meaning: While you were near, I could bear it even without seeing you; but now that you will be farther away still, I will not be able to go on living.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 610

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twenty-four poems sent by Lady Kasa to Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi"
This is the last of the twenty-four. While he was near, she could bear not seeing him, but if he is farther away still she will not be able to live; she voices the grief of parting and closes the series. Its last line, ari katsu mashiji, is the same as that of poem 484 at the head of the book, so the same words for the pain of waiting echo the book's opening.
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, "While you were near me," runs to six syllables: because you were close.
Second line, "I could live though we did not meet," uses the concessive o: though I could go on without seeing you.
Third line, "now that farther still," means ever farther.
Fourth line, "you will dwell away from me," uses imasu, honorific of aru and yuku, with the hypothetical -ba: if you are to be there.
Fifth line, "I could not go on living," means I surely could not survive, the same line that ends poem 484.
Author: Lady Kasa
Source: Manyoshu
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