Yo no naka no omina ni shi araba waga wataru anase no kawa o watarikaneme ya

世の中の女にしあらば我が渡る
痛背の川を渡りかねめや

Roma-ji: Yo no naka no omina ni shi araba waga wataru anase no kawa o watarikaneme ya
English Translation: Were I just a woman
like the others in this world,
the Anase stream
that I must cross over now,
would I falter crossing it
Meaning: If I were an ordinary woman of the world, would I hesitate to cross the Anase River that lies before me?
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 643

Headnote: "Three poems of resentment by Ki no Iratsume, daughter of Lord Kanohito, named Oshika; she was the wife of Prince Aki"
This is the first of Ki no Iratsume's three poems of resentment. Were she an ordinary woman, she says, she would not hesitate to cross the Anase River. The name Anase seems to carry the sigh ana se, "ah, my husband," expressing the pain of her marriage. Her husband, Prince Aki, was the man punished for his love of the uneme of Yakami in Inaba, and some link these poems of resentment to that affair.
The author, Ki no Iratsume, was a daughter of Ki no Kanohito, named Oshika, and was the wife of Prince Aki.

First line, "Were I just a woman," means of the world, like others.
Second line, "like the others in this world," uses the emphatic shi: if I were a woman.
Third line, "the Anase stream," means that I am to cross.
Fourth line, "that I must cross over now," names a river thought to be the Anashi River in Yamato, its name echoing ana se.
Fifth line, "would I falter crossing it," uses the rhetorical meya: would I hesitate? Surely not.
Author: Ki no Iratsume
Source: Manyoshu
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