Utsukushi to aga omou imo o hitomina no yuku goto mime ya te ni makazu shite

愛しと我が思ふ妹を人皆の
行くごと見めや手にまかずして

Roma-ji: Utsukushi to aga omou imo o hitomina no yuku goto mime ya te ni makazu shite
English Translation: She whom I hold dear,
the girl I cherish so,
could I watch her pass
as others pass along the road,
never wound within my arms
Meaning: Could I watch the girl I hold so dear the way one watches strangers passing on the road, without ever holding her in my arms?
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts Directly 2843

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts Directly"
This is a man's poem declaring that he cannot simply gaze at the woman he loves as if she were a passer-by, and it states his strong desire to sleep beside her. Through a rhetorical question, it conveys his impatience with a love confined to looking.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet who served under Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. The left note shows that this poem was taken from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection, though scholars differ on whether it is Hitomaro's own work or a song he recorded.

Line one, "utsukushi to": "utsukushi" means dear or lovable. Poem 2914 in this book also opens "utsukushi to omou wagimo o," voicing love for the beloved with the same word.
Line two, "aga omou imo o": "imo" is a word a man uses fondly for his wife or lover.
Line three, "hitomina no," refers to all the people of the world.
Line four, "yuku goto mime ya," means "could I look on her as on people passing by?"; "me ya," the conjectural "mu" in its realis form plus the particle "ya," makes a rhetorical question.
Line five, "te ni makazu shite," means "without winding her in my arms as a pillow," implying "without sleeping together." It stands in inverted order with line four.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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