Makuzu hau natsuno no shigeku kaku koiba makoto waga inochi tsune narame ya mo

ま葛延ふ夏野の繁くかく恋ひば
まこと我が命常ならめやも

Roma-ji: Makuzu hau natsuno no shigeku kaku koiba makoto waga inochi tsune narame ya mo
English Translation: Where the kudzu creeps
thick across the summer fields,
if I love like this,
truly, can this life of mine
last unchanged? It cannot be.
Meaning: If I go on loving like this, thick as the summer fields where the kudzu creeps, how can my life truly remain unharmed?
Commentary: Book Ten Summer Love Poems 1985

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Grasses"
This poem laments that if love continues thick as summer fields overgrown with kudzu, the speaker's life itself will not last. The rampant growth of kudzu across the summer fields shows the intensity of love, frankly expressing the feeling of life worn away by longing. Following the preceding two poems, it is the third in a series using the thick growth of summer grass as a figure for love.

In the first line, "makuzu hau," "ma" is a prefix: where the kudzu creeps.
The second line, "thick as the summer fields," with the upper lines forming a preface leading into "shigeku."
In the third line, "kaku koiba," "ba" marks a supposition: if I love like this.
The fourth line, "truly my life," is hypermetric.
In the last line, "tsune narame ya mo," "me ya mo" is rhetorical: can it stay unharmed? surely not.
Source: Manyoshu
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