Okuyama no konoha gakurite yuku mizu no oto kikishi yori tsune wasuraezu

奥山の木の葉隠りて行く水の
音聞きしより常忘らえず

Roma-ji: Okuyama no konoha gakurite yuku mizu no oto kikishi yori tsune wasuraezu
English Translation: In the mountain depths,
hidden by the leaves of trees,
water flowing on:
since I heard its sound, your name,
never can I let it go
Meaning: Like water flowing hidden beneath the leaves deep in the mountains, ever since I heard word of you, I have never been able to forget.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2711

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Like the sound of water flowing secretly in the shade of leaves deep in the mountains, someone known only through faint rumor has never left the speaker's heart since. Longing for a person not yet met is overlaid on the sound of unseen water.
Expressing feelings through a mountain stream, the poem draws from the "oto" (sound) of unseen water the "oto" meaning reputation or rumor. Poem 2718 in this book likewise uses the sound of water as a preface, but sings of the resolve never to let love become known; the one who hears the rumor here and the one who will not let it arise there form a pair.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not been handed down.

First line, "okuyama no": "of the deep mountains," far from human settlements.
Second line, "konoha gakurite": "hidden by the leaves of trees." It depicts a stream unseen in the shade of leaves, suggesting that only rumor reaches the speaker while the person remains unseen.
Third line, "yuku mizu no": "of the flowing water." The lines up to here form a preface leading to "oto" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "oto kikishi yori": "since I heard word." "Oto" plays on both the sound of water and a person's reputation. "Shi yori" means "ever since."
Fifth line, "tsune wasuraezu": "I can never forget." "E" is the irrealis form of the potential auxiliary "yu," and with the negative "zu" it expresses being unable to forget however one tries.
Source: Manyoshu
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