Yo no naka o ushi to yasashi to omoedomo tobitachi kanetsu tori ni shi araneba

世間を憂しとやさしと思へども
飛び立ちかねつ鳥にしあらねば

Roma-ji: Yo no naka o ushi to yasashi to omoedomo tobitachi kanetsu tori ni shi araneba
English Translation: This world of ours I
find so wretched and so shaming,
and yet though I do,
I cannot fly away from it,
for I am not a bird
Meaning: I find this world wretched and shameful, yet I cannot fly away from it, for I am not a bird.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 893

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A dialogue on poverty, with tanka"
The poet laments that though he finds the world wretched and shameful, he cannot fly away, not being a bird. Following the long poem's depiction of the poor in the form of a dialogue, it sums up briefly the inescapable lot of human life. It is widely known as one of Okura's representative works.
The long poem is framed as a dialogue: on a cold night of wind and sleet, a poor man, nibbling hard salt and sipping sake lees to bear the cold, asks how those poorer than he manage to live; one in utter destitution answers, describing a hearth without a wisp of smoke and a rice steamer forgotten, while the village headman comes shouting for taxes. The left note reads "Respectfully presented by Yamanoue no Okura," suggesting it was offered to someone.
The poet, Yamanoue no Okura, was an official who went to Tang China as a junior secretary with the embassy appointed in Taihō 1. After his return he served as Governor of Hōki and in the household of the Crown Prince, and late in the Jinki era he was posted to Tsukushi as Governor of Chikuzen. He is known for poems rooted in everyday life, on the sufferings of human existence, love for family, and poverty, written against a background of learning in Chinese classics and Buddhist scripture.

First line, "yo no naka o": the human world, opening, like the book's first poem 793, with "this world."
Second line, "ushi to yasashi to": "yasashi" means shamed to the point of wasting away, paired with wretchedness.
Third line, "omoedomo": adversative, "though I think so."
Fourth line, "tobitachi kanetsu": "I cannot fly away"; the poem breaks here.
Fifth line, "tori ni shi araneba": "shi" is emphatic: for I am not a bird, the reason given last by inversion.
Author: Yamanoue no Okura
Source: Manyoshu
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