Ashihiki no yamadori no o no hitoo koe hitome mishi ko ni kōbeki mono ka

あしひきの山鳥の尾の一峰越え
一目見し子に恋ふべきものか

Roma-ji: Ashihiki no yamadori no o no hitoo koe hitome mishi ko ni kōbeki mono ka
English Translation: Over a mountain
long as the copper pheasant's tail
one ridge I crossed,
one glimpse I had of her; can it be
I should long so for that girl
Meaning: Should I be pining like this for a girl I glimpsed but once, beyond a single ridge as long as the mountain pheasant's tail?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2694

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Should I love so much a girl I glimpsed just once beyond a single ridge? So a man wonders at his own heart. His surprise at being captivated by so slight an encounter and his helpless longing are expressed in the form of a rhetorical question.
This is a poem on the mountain pheasant, and the first three lines form a preface that repeats the sound "hito" to lead into "one glimpse." The opening, "ashihiki no yamadori no o no," is the same as that of the poem recorded in a left note as a variant of poem 2802, which later entered the Shuishu as Hitomaro's work and was chosen for the Hyakunin Isshu: "ashihiki no yamadori no o no shidario no."
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, "ashihiki no": a pillow word attached to "mountain"; here it leads into the mountain pheasant.
Second line, "yamadori no o no": "of the mountain pheasant's tail." It brings in the bird's long tail, and the homophone "o" for tail and "o" for ridge carries on into "one ridge."
Third line, "hitoo koe": "crossing one ridge." The sound "hito" in "hitoo" leads into "hitome," one glimpse, and the first three lines form a preface. It also suggests that the girl lives beyond the ridge.
Fourth line, "hitome mishi ko ni": "for the girl I saw but once." "Shi" is the attributive of the past "ki," and "ko" is an affectionate word for a young woman.
Fifth line, "kōbeki mono ka": "should I be longing so?" "Beki" is the attributive of "beshi," and "mono ka" is rhetorical, expressing a heart that knows it should not love yet cannot help loving.
Source: Manyoshu
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