Yama takami tanihe ni haeru tamakazura tayuru toki naku mimu yoshi mogamo

山高み谷辺に延へる玉葛
絶ゆる時なく見むよしもがも

Roma-ji: Yama takami tanihe ni haeru tamakazura tayuru toki naku mimu yoshi mogamo
English Translation: Since the mountains tower,
down in the valleys trailing
the jeweled vines grow;
never breaking off, would there
were a way for us to meet
Meaning: Like the jeweled vines trailing along the valleys beneath the high mountains, if only there were a way to see you without ever a break.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2775

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Like the vines that trail on and on through the valleys without a break, the speaker wishes for a way to meet the beloved unceasingly. Lamenting how hard it is to meet, the poem simply voices the longing for an endless succession of meetings.
It is a poem on vines, overlaying the endlessly spreading tendrils on the wish for meetings that never break off. Drawing "tayu" (to break off) from the long unbroken vine is a conceit often found in the love poems of the Man'yoshu.
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, "yama takami": "because the mountains are high." The stem of "takashi" with "mi" expresses cause or reason.
Second line, "tanihe ni haeru": "trailing along the valleys." "Haeru" is "hau" with the continuative auxiliary "ri," describing tendrils spreading as they creep.
Third line, "tamakazura": an elegant name for vines. The first three lines form a preface, the long, unbroken tendrils leading into "tayuru toki naku."
Fourth line, "tayuru toki naku": "without ever breaking off," expressing the wish that meetings go on without end, like the vine.
Fifth line, "mimu yoshi mogamo": "if only there were a way to meet." "Miru" means to meet, "yoshi" a means, and "mogamo" is a particle of longing, closing on an unfulfilled wish.
Source: Manyoshu
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