Iki no o ni aga omou kimi wa toriganaku azuma no saka o kyō ka koyuramu

息の緒に我が思ふ君は鶏が鳴く
東の坂を今日か越ゆらむ

Roma-ji: Iki no o ni aga omou kimi wa toriganaku azuma no saka o kyō ka koyuramu
English Translation: You whom I love
with every breath I take,
where the cock crows,
on the slope to the eastern lands,
are you crossing it today
Meaning: You, whom I love with my very life, are you crossing the slope to the eastern provinces today?
Commentary: Book Twelve Poems Lamenting Parting 3194

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems Lamenting Parting"
A woman wonders whether the man she loves with her very life is crossing the slope to the eastern provinces today. It expresses deep feeling for a man who has set out for the distant east.
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, "iki no o ni," means "with my life's breath," a phrase also found in poems 3045 and 3115 in this book.
Line two, "aga omou kimi wa," means "you whom I love."
Line three, "toriganaku," meaning "where the cock crows," is a pillow word for "azuma," the east.
Line four, "azuma no saka o," means "the slope toward the eastern provinces," taken to be the Ashigara or Usui pass.
Line five, "kyō ka koyuramu," means "are you crossing it today?", following poems 3192 and 3193 in imagining the traveler's journey.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Tamakatsuma Shimakumayama no yūgure ni hitori ka kimi ga yamaji koyuramu
Next Poem: Iwakiyama tadagoe kimase Isosaki no Konumi no hama ni ware tachimatamu