Mononofu no yaso ujigawa no hayaki se ni tachienu koi mo are wa suru kamo

もののふの八十宇治川の早き瀬に
立ちえぬ恋も我れはするかも

Roma-ji: Mononofu no yaso ujigawa no hayaki se ni tachienu koi mo are wa suru kamo
English Translation: In the rapids swift
of the Uji River, named
for eighty warrior clans,
one cannot stand, and such a love
is the love I now endure
Meaning: As no one can stand in the swift shoals of the Uji River, I am caught in a love so strong I cannot stay on my feet.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2714

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Just as one loses footing and cannot stand in the rapids of the Uji River, the speaker sings of a love so violent that standing is impossible. The way the pain of love shakes body and heart is made concrete through the image of a person standing in a torrent.
Expressing feelings through the swift shoals of the Uji River, the poem overlays two meanings on "tachienu": unable to stand in the rapids, and unable to hold oneself upright because of love. The phrase "mononofu no yaso ujigawa" also appears in a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, poem 264 of Book Three. Following the Asuka River of the preceding poem, this one sings of the swift shoals of the Uji River.
The original text notes a variant: "tachite mo kimi wa wasurekanetsu mo," in which the lower verse means "even standing, I cannot forget you." Here the main text, "tachienu koi mo are wa suru kamo," has been adopted.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not been handed down.

First line, "mononofu no": a pillow word attached to "yaso" (eighty), from the many clans that served the court.
Second line, "yaso ujigawa no": "of the Uji River." "Yaso" means the many clans (uji), leading to "Uji" with the same sound. The Uji River flows through Yamashiro Province, present-day Uji in Kyoto Prefecture.
Third line, "hayaki se ni": "in the swift shoals." The lines up to here form a preface, leading from being unable to stand in rapids to "tachienu" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "tachienu koi mo": "a love in which I cannot stand." "E" expresses possibility, and with the negative "nu" it means being unable to stand. "Mo" is emphatic.
Fifth line, "are wa suru kamo": "this is what I am doing." "Kamo" is an exclamatory final particle, expressing surprise at a love too fierce to control.
Source: Manyoshu
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