Suzukagawa yaso se watarite ta ga yue ka yogoe ni koemu tsuma mo aranaku ni

鈴鹿川八十瀬渡りて誰がゆゑか
夜越えに越えむ妻もあらなくに

Roma-ji: Suzukagawa yaso se watarite ta ga yue ka yogoe ni koemu tsuma mo aranaku ni
English Translation: Across the Suzuka,
fording its eighty shallows,
for whose sake
should I cross the hills by night,
with no wife to wait for me
Meaning: Crossing the countless shallows of the Suzuka River, for whose sake should I cross the mountains by night, when I have no wife waiting for me?
Commentary: Book Twelve Thoughts Arising on Journeys 3156

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thoughts Arising on Journeys"
Crossing the many shallows of the Suzuka River and the mountains through the night, the poet laments the loneliness of travel: for whose sake, with no wife waiting? Unlike the preceding travel poems longing for a wife, it sings of a lonely journey with no one to hurry toward.
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, "Suzukagawa," is the Suzuka River in Mie Prefecture.
Line two, "yaso se watarite," means "fording its many shallows."
Line three, "ta ga yue ka," means "for whose sake?", with "ka" a question concluded by the attributive "mu" in line four.
Line four, "yogoe ni koemu," means "should I cross by night?"
Line five, "tsuma mo aranaku ni," means "with no wife to wait," expressing the dreariness of a journey with no one to hurry toward, in contrast with the man hastening to his wife in poem 3154 in this book.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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