Miyagi hiku izumi no soma ni tatsu tami no yamu toki mo naku koiwataru kamo

宮材引く泉の杣に立つ民の
やむ時もなく恋ひわたるかも

Roma-ji: Miyagi hiku izumi no soma ni tatsu tami no yamu toki mo naku koiwataru kamo
English Translation: As the folk who stand
in the timberland of Izumi
hauling palace wood,
without ever any rest
I go on and on in love
Meaning: Like the people who labor in the timber forests of Izumi, hauling wood for the palace without any rest, so I go on longing, never ceasing.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2645

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Like the laborers who work without pause in the timber forests of Izumi, cutting wood for the palace, the speaker goes on longing without end. Through the vast undertaking of palace building, the poem conveys the ceaseless pain of love.
The first three lines form a preface leading to "yamu toki mo naku," making the endless toil of the forest workers an image of a love that never rests. Poem 50 in Book One, by the laborers who built the Fujiwara Palace, also depicts palace timber floated down the Izumi River, and this preface is thought to draw on such scenes of capital building. Following the bridge of the preceding poem, it is another poem tied to people's labor.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "miyagi hiku": "hauling palace timber." "Miyagi" is wood for building a palace.
Second line, "izumi no soma ni": the timber forests along the Izumi River, the present Kizu River, in southern Kyoto Prefecture. A "soma" is a mountain from which timber is cut.
Third line, "tatsu tami no": "of the people standing at work there." These three lines form a preface introducing the next phrase.
Fourth line, "yamu toki mo naku": "without any time of rest," linking the ceaseless labor of the preface to the speaker's unending love.
Fifth line, "koiwataru kamo": "how I go on longing." "Wataru" adds the sense of continuing over time, and the particle "kamo" expresses deep feeling.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Owarida no itada no hashi no kohorenaba keta yori yukamu na koi so wagimo
Next Poem: Suminoe no tsumori abiki no uke no o no ukare ka yukamu koitsutsu arazu wa