Yamashina no kohata no yama o uma wa aredo kachi yori waga koshi na o omoikanete

山科の木幡の山を馬はあれど
徒歩より我が来し汝を思ひかねて

Roma-ji: Yamashina no kohata no yama o uma wa aredo kachi yori waga koshi na o omoikanete
English Translation: Over Kohata's hill
in Yamashina, though I
had a horse to ride,
on foot I came all the way,
unable to bear my love
Meaning: Over the hill of Kohata in Yamashina, though I had a horse, I came on foot, unable to hold back my longing for you.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2425

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Though he had a horse, the speaker crossed the hill of Kohata in Yamashina on foot, because he could not contain his longing for the beloved. A love so impatient that even waiting for a horse to be readied was too much is made concrete in the act of crossing the hill on foot.
This poem speaks through a mountain, the hill of Kohata. Kohata lies near Uji, and from poem 2427 of this book onward, poems on the Uji River follow. Poems naming places in Yamashiro are gathered close together here.
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, "yamashina no": "of Yamashina," the area of present-day Yamashina Ward in Kyoto; Kohata lies just to its south.
Second line, "kohata no yama o": "over the hill of Kohata." Kohata is in the north of present-day Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, on the route linking Yamato and Omi.
Third line, "uma wa aredo": "though I had a horse." The concessive "do" leads to the fact that he chose to come on foot.
Fourth line, "kachi yori waga koshi": "on foot I came." "Yori" is a particle marking means. The line is hypermetric; it closes with feeling on "shi," the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki," and the poem pauses here.
Fifth line, "na o omoikanete": "unable to bear my longing for you." It stands in inversion with the fourth line, giving afterward the reason for coming on foot. "Kanu" means to be unable to do something fully.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Himokagami notoka no yama mo ta ga yue ka kimi kimaseru ni himo tokazu nemu
Next Poem: Tōyama ni kasumi tanabiki iya tō ni imo ga me mineba are koi ni keri