Aoyama no iwakakinuma no migomori ni koi ya wataramu au yoshi o nami

青山の岩垣沼の水隠りに
恋ひやわたらむ逢ふよしをなみ

Roma-ji: Aoyama no iwakakinuma no migomori ni koi ya wataramu au yoshi o nami
English Translation: Deep in the green hills,
in a pool walled round with rocks,
hidden in the stream,
must I go on loving so
with no way to meet at all
Meaning: Like the water hidden in a rock-walled pool among the green mountains, must I go on loving in secret, since I have no way to meet you?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2707

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Like the water of a pool walled in by rocks among the wooded hills, the speaker laments that there is nothing to do but go on loving in secret, unseen by others. The reality that there is no way to meet is given as the reason in the final line.
The poem expresses hidden love through a mountain pool. Like poem 2703 in this book, it contains the phrase "migomori ni," but while that poem sings of the joy of being united after long secrecy, this one laments that meeting is impossible; the same scene thus forms a pair of light and shadow.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not been handed down.

First line, "aoyama no": "of the green mountain," where trees grow thick and green.
Second line, "iwakakinuma no": "of the pool enclosed by rocks like a fence," suggesting a pool deep in the mountains that people can hardly approach.
Third line, "migomori ni": "with its water hidden." The lines up to here form a preface, making the unseen waters of the pool a metaphor for love kept secret.
Fourth line, "koi ya wataramu": "must I go on loving?" The particle "ya" and the attributive form of the auxiliary "mu" form a kakari-musubi construction. The poem pauses here.
Fifth line, "au yoshi o nami": "since there is no way to meet." "Nami" adds "mi" to the stem of the adjective "nashi" to express a reason, and its inversion with the fourth line gives the cause of the lament afterward.
Source: Manyoshu
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