Kamunabi no uchimi no saki no iwabuchi no komorite nomi ya aga koioramu

神なびの打廻の崎の岩淵の
隠りてのみや我が恋ひ居らむ

Roma-ji: Kamunabi no uchimi no saki no iwabuchi no komorite nomi ya aga koioramu
English Translation: At the god's dwelling,
where the stream bends round the cape
to a rock-bound pool,
must I ever, hidden so,
only go on loving you
Meaning: Like the deep pool among the rocks at the cape of Uchimi by the sacred grove, must I go on loving only in hiding?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2715

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Through the hidden depths of a rock-bound pool at the cape of Uchimi by the sacred grove, the speaker laments loving only within the heart, unable to confess. The frustration of wondering how long such concealment must last is expressed as a question.
The poem expresses hidden love through a river pool. The word "komori" (hidden) echoes "migomori ni" in poems 2703 and 2707 of this book, and the device of overlaying secret love on unseen water in rivers and pools recurs throughout this sequence.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not been handed down.

First line, "kamunabi no": "of the sacred grove," a mountain or wood where a god descends and dwells. Here it is thought to refer to the sacred hill at Asuka.
Second line, "uchimi no saki no": "of the cape where the river bends around." It is thought to be where the Asuka River winds around the foot of the sacred hill.
Third line, "iwabuchi no": "of the deep pool enclosed by rocks." The lines up to here form a preface, leading from the hidden depths of the pool to "komori" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "komorite nomi ya": "only in hiding," meaning to keep love secret from others. The particle "ya" marks a question.
Fifth line, "aga koioramu": "must I go on loving?" It ends with the attributive "mu" of the conjectural auxiliary, answering the "ya" of the fourth line in a kakari-musubi construction.
Source: Manyoshu
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