Kaku nomi shi koishi watareba tamakiharu inochi mo ware wa oshikeku mo nashi

かくのみし恋ひしわたればたまきはる
命も我れは惜しけくもなし

Roma-ji: Kaku nomi shi koishi watareba tamakiharu inochi mo ware wa oshikeku mo nashi
English Translation: Since I go on loving
so and only so, day after day,
this soul-bound life,
even that, for me, is nothing
I would hold too dear to lose.
Meaning: Since I go on loving like this, I would not grudge even my very life.
Commentary: Book Nine Love Poems 1769

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems composed by Nukeno Ōobito when, appointed to Tsukushi, he took as wife Himono Ko, a maiden of Buzen"
Having loved so long and so deeply, the speaker says he would not grudge even his life. The words of one willing to give up his life show how deep his feeling runs.
This is the third of Nukeno Ōobito's three poems. After the joy of the first and the hidden love of the second, the sequence ends with the fierce feeling that even life is not too dear.
The author, Nukeno Ōobito, is otherwise unknown. According to the headnote, when posted to Tsukushi he took as wife a maiden of Buzen named Himono Ko.

The first line, "since I go on loving," includes the emphatic shi.
The second line, "so and only so, day after day," uses wataru for a lasting state.
The third line, "this soul-bound life," renders tamakiharu, a pillow word for inochi, "life."
The fourth line, "even that, for me, is nothing," singles out life itself.
The final line, "I would hold too dear to lose," uses oshikeku, a nominalized form of oshi, "precious."
Author: Nukeno Ōobito
Source: Manyoshu
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Next Poem: Mimoro no kami no obaseru hatsusegawa mio shi taezu wa ware wasureme ya