Hayumaji ni hikifune watashi tadanori ni imo wa kokoro ni nori ni keru kamo

駅路に引き舟渡し直乗りに
妹は心に乗りにけるかも

Roma-ji: Hayumaji ni hikifune watashi tadanori ni imo wa kokoro ni nori ni keru kamo
English Translation: As on the post road
the tow-boats ferry across
and all ride straight aboard,
so my love has come aboard
and rides upon my heart
Meaning: As travelers on the post road board the tow-boat ferry straight and without pause, so wholly has my beloved come to ride upon my heart.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2749

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
This love poem tells how the beloved has come straight aboard the speaker's heart and will not leave. Travelers boarding a tow-boat at a ferry on the official road are overlaid with the beloved who single-mindedly fills the heart.
It is a poem "Expressing Feelings through Things" that speaks through a tow-boat on the post road, and it shares its last two lines, "imo wa kokoro ni nori ni keru kamo," with the preceding poem. Where the preceding poem led to "shimimi ni" through cargo densely loaded, this one leads to "tadanori ni" through passengers boarding a ferry directly, so the two are a pair that changes the introduction to sing the same feeling.
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, "hayumaji ni": "on the post road." The post roads were official highways served by post horses, with ferries placed at river crossings.
Second line, "hikifune watashi": "ferrying across in a tow-boat." The first two lines form an introductory phrase that, through travelers boarding the boat directly, leads to "tadanori ni" in the third line.
Third line, "tadanori ni": "riding straight aboard, wholly." The meaning shifts from boarding the boat to the beloved riding upon the heart.
Fourth line, "imo wa kokoro ni": "my beloved, upon my heart," the same line as in the preceding poem.
Fifth line, "nori ni keru kamo": "has come to ride," the same last line as the preceding poem. Echoing "nori" in "tadanori" of the third line, it ties the boat of the introduction to the beloved riding on the heart.
Source: Manyoshu
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