Niihari no ima tsukuru michi sayaka ni mo kikitekeru kamo imo ga ue no koto o

新治の今作る道さやかにも
聞きてけるかも妹が上のことを

Roma-ji: Niihari no ima tsukuru michi sayaka ni mo kikitekeru kamo imo ga ue no koto o
English Translation: Like the road new-cut
through freshly opened land,
so clearly
have I heard it told,
all about my darling's life
Meaning: As clear as a road just being cut through newly cleared land, I have heard plainly all about my beloved's circumstances.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 2855

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
Using the sharp outline of a newly built road as an introduction, the poem tells of having clearly heard about the beloved's circumstances. What was heard is not revealed within the poem, and that reticence invites the reader's imagination.
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, "niihari no," refers to newly cleared land.
Line two, "ima tsukuru michi," is the new road just being built; together with line one it forms an introduction leading to "sayaka ni," clearly, through the crisp image of the road.
Line three, "sayaka ni mo," means "clearly."
Line four, "kikitekeru kamo": "tekeru" combines completion and past, and "kamo" is exclamatory, "I have heard it, alas."
Line five, "imo ga ue no koto o," means "about my beloved's life," a hypermetric line of eight syllables. It stands in inverted order with line four.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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