Ōbune ni ashini kari tsumi shimimi ni mo imo wa kokoro ni nori ni keru kamo

大船に葦荷刈り積みしみみにも
妹は心に乗りにけるかも

Roma-ji: Ōbune ni ashini kari tsumi shimimi ni mo imo wa kokoro ni nori ni keru kamo
English Translation: As on a great ship
reeds are cut and loaded high,
packed without a gap,
so my love has come aboard
and rides upon my heart
Meaning: As cut reeds are loaded thick upon a great ship, so densely, leaving no gap, has my beloved come to ride upon my heart.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2748

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
This love poem tells how thoughts of the beloved have come to weigh densely on the speaker's heart and will not leave. The image of cut reeds loaded without gaps onto a great ship is laid over the beloved who fills the heart entirely.
It is a poem "Expressing Feelings through Things" that speaks through a cargo of reeds on a great ship. The next poem has the same last two lines, "imo wa kokoro ni nori ni keru kamo," and changes only the introduction, so that the two form a pair. This poem expresses the beloved riding on the heart through the weight and mass of cargo, and the next through riding straight aboard.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "ōbune ni": "on a great ship," suggesting a vessel laden with cargo.
Second line, "ashini kari tsumi": "cutting and loading a cargo of reeds." The first two lines form an introductory phrase that, through the dense loading, leads to "shimimi ni" in the third line.
Third line, "shimimi ni mo": "packed tight, leaving no gap." The meaning moves from the loaded cargo to the thoughts of love that fill the heart.
Fourth line, "imo wa kokoro ni": "my beloved, upon my heart." It is the same line as in the next poem.
Fifth line, "nori ni keru kamo": "has come to ride." "To ride upon the heart" means that the other person never leaves one's thoughts, and the verb is associated with the "ship" of the introduction. "Ni keri" expresses completion and realization, and "kamo" closes with deep feeling. The next poem ends with the same line.
Source: Manyoshu
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