Chihayaburu kami no ikaki mo koenu beshi ima wa waga na no oshikeku mo nashi

ちはやぶる神の斎垣も越えぬべし
今は我が名の惜しけくもなし

Roma-ji: Chihayaburu kami no ikaki mo koenu beshi ima wa waga na no oshikeku mo nashi
English Translation: Even the sacred fence
of the mighty gods themselves
I would surely cross:
now this name of mine
is no longer dear to me
Meaning: I would even cross the sacred fence of the mighty gods. Now I no longer care for my good name at all.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2663

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The speaker would even cross the sacred fence of the gods, and no longer cares what is said of one's name: this poem voices a readiness to break any taboo for love. Through the fence of a sacred precinct that must not be crossed, it expresses a passion that disregards public reputation.
This poem shares its last line, "oshikeku mo nashi," with poem 2661, two poems earlier. While poem 2661 does not value life, this one does not value reputation, and both express the intensity of love. It also stands at the close of the group of poems on gods that runs from poem 2656 in this book, on the sacred zelkova of Karu.
Its first half matches "chihayaburu kami no igaki mo koenu beshi omiyabito no mimaku hoshisa ni" in section 71 of The Tales of Ise, showing that this phrasing was handed down to later ages.
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, "chihayaburu": a pillow word attached to "gods," marking this, like the poems before it, as a poem on the gods.
Second line, "kami no ikaki mo": "even the sacred fence of the gods." "Ikaki" is the fence around a sacred precinct, and "mo" stresses "even what must not be crossed."
Third line, "koenu beshi": "I would surely cross it." The intensifying "nu" plus the conjectural "beshi," with a break in the poem here.
Fourth line, "ima wa waga na no": "now, my name." "Na" means one's reputation in the world.
Fifth line, "oshikeku mo nashi": "is not dear to me." "Oshikeku" is the nominalized form of the adjective "oshi," the same words as the last line of poem 2661 in this book.
Source: Manyoshu
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