Utsusemi no utsushigokoro mo ware wa nashi imo o aimizute toshi no henureba

うつせみの現し心も我れはなし
妹を相見ずて年の経ぬれば

Roma-ji: Utsusemi no utsushigokoro mo ware wa nashi imo o aimizute toshi no henureba
English Translation: The waking sense
of one who lives in this world
I have lost it all,
for without meeting my love
the years have slipped away
Meaning: I have lost the clear mind of a living person, for the years have passed without my seeing my beloved.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts Directly 2960

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts Directly"
The poet laments having lost even the sanity of a living person as years pass without meeting. Overlapping the sounds of "utsusemi" and "utsushigokoro," it expresses being alive yet bereft of one's mind.
The poet is unknown. Book Twelve, titled the second part of "Love Poems Exchanged Old and New," gathers love poems by people whose names have not come down to us, arranged by category.

Line one, "utsusemi no," means "of one living in this world," leading to "utsushigokoro."
Line two, "utsushigokoro mo," means "a sound, clear mind," repeating the sound "utsu" from line one.
Line three, "ware wa nashi," means "I have none," and the poem pauses here.
Line four, "imo o aimizute," means "without meeting my beloved," a hypermetric line of eight syllables.
Line five, "toshi no henureba," means "since the years have passed," the same final line as poem 2941 in this book.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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