Imo ga atari tōku mo mireba ayashiku mo are wa kouru ka au yoshi nashi ni

妹があたり遠くも見ればあやしくも
我れは恋ふるか逢ふよしなしに

Roma-ji: Imo ga atari tōku mo mireba ayashiku mo are wa kouru ka au yoshi nashi ni
English Translation: When toward where she lives
I cast my gaze from afar,
strangely, wondrously,
how I find myself in love,
with no means at all to meet
Meaning: When I gaze from afar toward the place where my beloved lives, how strangely I fall to longing for her, though I have no means to meet.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2402

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
Gazing from afar toward where his beloved lives, the speaker finds longing welling up strangely within him, though he has no means of meeting her. The poem frankly states how irrepressible love is, growing all the stronger merely from looking into the distance.
The "yoshi" of "with no means to meet" also appears in "by what means" in poem 2396 of this book, and the two share a lament over having no means in love. Where the preceding poem sang of a beloved passing by the gate, this one gazes toward her distant home, and poems about the distance between lovers continue.
The author is unknown; according to the left note, the poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection. That collection is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he recorded. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jito and Emperor Monmu, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "imo ga atari": "toward where my beloved lives." He looks not at her house itself but at its surroundings, a modest stance.
Second line, "tōku mo mireba": "when I look from afar." The particle "mo" stresses the distance between them.
Third line, "ayashiku mo": "strangely, wondrously," expressing a longing that wells up for reasons he himself cannot grasp.
Fourth line, "are wa kouru ka": "how I long for her." The particle "ka" expresses exclamation and is answered by "kouru," the attributive form of "kou." The poem breaks after the fourth line, inverted with the last line.
Fifth line, "au yoshi nashi ni": "though there is no means to meet." Placed last through inversion, it makes the longing of the fourth line all the more poignant.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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