Ashihiki no yamashita toyomi yuku mizu no toki tomo naku mo koiwataru kamo

あしひきの山下響み行く水の
時ともなくも恋ひわたるかも

Roma-ji: Ashihiki no yamashita toyomi yuku mizu no toki tomo naku mo koiwataru kamo
English Translation: Down the mountain's foot
the rushing waters echo
as they flow along;
with no pause, whatever the hour,
I go on and on in love
Meaning: Like the water that flows on, echoing at the foot of the rugged mountain, I go on loving without pause, whatever the hour.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2704

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Through water that flows on, echoing loudly at the foot of a mountain, the poem sings of a love that continues without ceasing, regardless of the hour. The never-resting stream becomes a metaphor for a longing that never stops.
As a poem expressing feelings through things, the whole upper verse serves as a preface, turning from the unceasing flow of water to the love in the lower verse. The pattern of ending the preface with "yuku mizu no" (like the flowing water) also appears in poems 2708, 2711, and 2718 of this book, forming a recurring model within this sequence of water poems.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not been handed down.

First line, "ashihiki no": a pillow word attached to "mountain."
Second line, "yamashita toyomi": "making the mountain's foot resound." "Toyomu" is a verb meaning to echo, depicting the sound of water rushing along.
Third line, "yuku mizu no": "like the flowing water." The lines up to here form a preface, leading from the ceaseless flow of water to "toki tomo naku" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "toki tomo naku mo": "with no distinction of time." The emphatic particle "mo" stresses a love that continues day and night.
Fifth line, "koiwataru kamo": "how I go on loving." "Wataru" adds the sense of an action continuing over time, and "kamo" is an exclamatory final particle.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Makomo karu ōno gawara no migomori ni koikoshi imo ga himo toku ware wa
Next Poem: Hashikiyashi awanu kimi yue itazura ni kono kawa no se ni tamamo nurashitsu