Satobito no kotoyosezuma o arakaki no yoso ni ya waga mimu nikuku aranaku ni

里人の言寄せ妻を荒垣の
外にや我が見む憎くあらなくに

Roma-ji: Satobito no kotoyosezuma o arakaki no yoso ni ya waga mimu nikuku aranaku ni
English Translation: The one village folk
have linked with me in their talk,
beyond the rough fence,
must I watch her from afar,
though I hold no hate for her
Meaning: The woman the village folk have joined to me in their gossip, must I only watch her from afar, as if from beyond a rough fence, though I hold no dislike for her?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2562

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
The speaker laments that he can only watch from afar the woman the villagers link with him in their gossip, though he bears her no dislike. The poem expresses his feelings for a woman he cannot approach in reality while rumor runs ahead of them, and his frustration at it.
Whereas the preceding poem, 2561, hesitates to meet for fear of gossip, this poem sings of a man who, though gossip is already spreading, cannot meet the woman at all. As love poems about the world's talk, the two are placed as a pair seen from different positions.
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, "satobito no": "of the village folk," referring to the people who spread rumors.
Second line, "kotoyosezuma o": "the woman linked to me by gossip." "Kotoyosu" means to talk up a relationship between a man and a woman.
Third line, "arakaki no": "of the rough-woven fence," which calls up the outside of the fence and introduces "yoso" in the next line.
Fourth line, "yoso ni ya waga mimu": "must I watch her as a stranger?" The particle "ya" is answered by the attributive form of the conjectural "mu," a kakari-musubi construction, and the poem breaks after the fourth line.
Fifth line, "nikuku aranaku ni": "though I do not dislike her." "Naku ni" is the nominalized negative "zu" with "ni," and through inversion the speaker adds his true feeling at the end.
Source: Manyoshu
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