Tama no o no aida mo okazu mimaku hori aga omou imo wa ie dōku arite

玉の緒の間も置かず見まく欲り
我が思ふ妹は家遠くありて

Roma-ji: Tama no o no aida mo okazu mimaku hori aga omou imo wa ie dōku arite
English Translation: As jewels on a cord
with no space between, I long
to see her always,
this beloved of my heart,
but her house lies far away
Meaning: I long to see her without a moment's gap, like the jewels close together on a cord, yet my beloved lives so far away.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2793

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The speaker longs to see his beloved without the slightest interval, but her house lies far away and he cannot meet her as he wishes. The last line breaks off, leaving the frustration of not meeting as a lingering echo.
This is the last poem in the sequence on the cord of jewels, drawing "aida mo okazu" from the closeness of jewels strung one beside another on a cord. Whereas the preceding poem spoke of the long gap of years and months, this one brings in the small gap between jewels and laments, in contrast, the distance to her home.
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, "tama no o no": a pillow word attached to "aida" (interval), from the short space between jewels threaded on a cord.
Second line, "aida mo okazu": "without leaving any interval," meaning constantly. The particle "mo" stresses the absence of any gap.
Third line, "mimaku hori": "wishing to see." "Mimaku" is the nominalized form of "mimu," and "hori" is the continuative form of the verb "horu" (to desire). To see here means to meet.
Fourth line, "aga omou imo wa": "the beloved I long for." The particle "wa" sets her off and carries the line on to the last.
Fifth line, "ie dōku arite": "her house being far away." The poem breaks off with the particle "te," leaving the grief of not meeting unspoken as a lingering resonance.
Source: Manyoshu
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