Shikishima no yamato no kuni ni hito futari ari to shi omowaba nani ka nagekamu

磯城島の大和の国に人ふたり
ありとし思はば何か嘆かむ

Roma-ji: Shikishima no yamato no kuni ni hito futari ari to shi omowaba nani ka nagekamu
English Translation: In Shikishima,
in all the land of Yamato,
if I could believe
there were two of such a one,
why should I so grieve?
Meaning: If only I could believe that in all the land of Yamato there were two such people as you, why would I grieve like this?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems 3249

Headnote: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to the chōka (3248). Though Yamato is full of people, the heart is drawn to only one, and it is because there is no second such person that she grieves. The chōka is a woman’s song: though the land teems with people, her thoughts cling like wisteria and her heart leans like young grass toward one man, and she wonders whether she must spend the long night in longing. The envoy takes up the chōka’s “though people throng the land” and narrows the count to “two,” sharpening the singleness of her love. Its first two lines repeat the chōka’s opening and also answer to “Shikishima no Yamato no kuni wa” in 3254 of this book.
The poet is unknown. Book Thirteen is built mainly of anonymous chōka and their envoys, and many of its poems preserve the air of old songs and ritual verse.

The first line, “Shikishima no,” is a pillow word for Yamato, derived from Shiki, the site of the palaces of Emperors Sujin and Kinmei.
The second line, “Yamato no kuni ni,” refers to the whole land and repeats the opening of the chōka in the envoy.
The third line, “hito futari,” means “another person like the beloved,” contrasting in number with the chōka’s “hito sawa ni” (people in throngs).
In the fourth line, “shi” is an emphatic particle, and “omowaba” a conditional: “if I could think there were.”
In the closing line, the particle “ka” is rhetorical, and the closing “mu” takes the attributive form in a kakari-musubi construction: “why should I grieve? I would not.” The inverted logic reveals the depth of her feeling.
Source: Manyoshu
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