Ōmi no umi okitsu shimayama okumaete a ga omou imo ga koto no shigekeku

近江の海沖つ島山奥まへて
我が思ふ妹が言の繁けく

Roma-ji: Ōmi no umi okitsu shimayama okumaete a ga omou imo ga koto no shigekeku
English Translation: Out on Ōmi's sea
rises the isle's distant hill;
deep within my heart
I cherish my love, yet how
thick the gossip runs of her
Meaning: Like the island hill far out on the Lake of Ōmi, I cherish her deep in my heart, yet how thick the talk about my beloved grows.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2728

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The speaker laments the loud gossip that rises around the beloved cherished deep in the heart. Borrowing the remote form of the island hill floating far out on Lake Biwa, the poem expresses a love long held in secret, and sharpens its contrast with the rumors that clamor about it.
As a poem expressing feelings through things, it speaks through the island hill out on the Lake of Ōmi. From the sea bays of the preceding poems, the scene shifts here to Lake Biwa, a freshwater lake. The last line, "koto no shigekeku," refers to abundant gossip, and together with "naki na" in poem 2726 of this book and "yosu tomo" in the next poem, it belongs to a cluster of nearby poems on the theme of rumor.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "Ōmi no umi": Lake Biwa. Sung as six syllables, "afumi no umi," the line is hypermetric.
Second line, "okitsu shimayama": "the island hill out in the offing," thought to be Okishima in Lake Biwa. "Tsu" is an old genitive particle meaning "no." The lines up to here form a preface, leading through the sound of "oki," "offing," to "oku," "deep within."
Third line, "okumaete": "cherishing deep within." It is also read as thinking deeply with an eye to the future.
Fourth line, "a ga omou imo ga": "of the beloved I love." "Imo" is the affectionate word a man uses for his love.
Fifth line, "koto no shigekeku": "how thick the gossip grows." "Shigekeku" is the nominalized form of the adjective "shigeshi," ending the poem like a noun with deep feeling.
Source: Manyoshu
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