Tamotōri yukimi no sato ni imo o okite kokoro sora ni ari tsuchi wa fumedomo

た廻り行箕の里に妹を置きて
心空にあり地は踏めども

Roma-ji: Tamotōri yukimi no sato ni imo o okite kokoro sora ni ari tsuchi wa fumedomo
English Translation: Wandering, I came
from the village of Yukimi,
leaving my love there:
now my heart is in the sky,
though my feet still tread the earth
Meaning: I have left my wife behind in the village of Yukimi, and my heart is in the sky, though my feet still tread the ground.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2541

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
Having parted from his wife and left her in the village of Yukimi, he walks with his feet on the ground but his heart in the air: this is a man's love poem. By contrasting "sky" and "earth," it plainly conveys the daze of one whose body moves forward while his heart stays behind with his wife.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "tamotōri": from "tamotōru," to wander back and forth, with the prefix "ta." The sense of going leads into the "yuki" of the place name Yukimi.
Second line, "yukimi no sato ni": "in the village of Yukimi," a place name whose location is unknown.
Third line, "imo o okite": "leaving my love behind." It is a hypermetric line of six syllables.
Fourth line, "kokoro sora ni ari": "my heart is in the sky," that is, absent-minded. The poem pauses here.
Fifth line, "tsuchi wa fumedomo": "though I tread the earth." The poem closes with the concessive "domo," and through inversion it contrasts the "sky" of the fourth line with the "earth" of the fifth.
Source: Manyoshu
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