Kamitsuke no inara no numa no ōigusa yoso ni mishi yo wa ima koso masare

上つ毛野伊奈良の沼の大藺草
外に見しよは今こそまされ

Roma-ji: Kamitsuke no inara no numa no ōigusa yoso ni mishi yo wa ima koso masare
English Translation: In Kamitsuke,
in the marsh of Inara,
the great rush grows tall:
more than when I watched from afar,
now, indeed, my love grows more.
Meaning: Like the tall rushes in Inara marsh in Kamitsuke—more than when I watched you from afar, it is now that my love grows stronger.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3417

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
Like the great rushes of Inara marsh, the singer's love is stronger now, after drawing close, than when he watched from a distance. The way feeling deepens as love grows is simply conveyed.
A note in the text says it "appears in the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection," so it is thought to have also been included there. It is one of the Kōzuke poems. Inara marsh is thought to be near present-day Itakura in Ōra District, Gunma.
The poet is unknown. The Azuma uta are thought to have been sung among the people of the eastern provinces, and they are marked by plain, open-hearted expression mixed with local dialect.

First line, "kamitsuke no": The old name of Kōzuke, opening as a Kōzuke poem.
Second line, "inara no numa no": Inara marsh; marsh poems continue among the Kōzuke songs.
Third line, "ōigusa": The great rushes growing in the marsh; the first three lines form a preface.
Fourth line, "yoso ni mishi yo wa": "Yoso ni mishi" is watching from afar as something unrelated to oneself.
Final line, "ima koso masare": "Koso" is a binding particle answered by the perfective "masare."
Source: Manyoshu
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