Haroharo ni omōyuru kamo shikaredomo keshiki kokoro o a ga mowanaku ni

はろはろに思ほゆるかもしかれども
異しき心を我が思はなくに

Roma-ji: Haroharo ni omōyuru kamo shikaredomo keshiki kokoro o a ga mowanaku ni
English Translation: How very far away
it all seems to me now;
and yet even so
no wavering of the heart
have I ever felt
Meaning: How very far apart we seem to be already; and yet, I have never harbored any thought of changing my heart.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3588

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The envoys sent to Silla grieve at parting and exchange poems, express their sorrowful feelings on the sea route, and recite old poems suited to the places they pass"
Thinking of the long journey ahead, the husband confesses his loneliness, yet vows that his heart will never change. It is the last of the eleven poems marked by the left note as an exchange, and the parting exchange closes with this vow. The lower phrase, "keshiki kokoro o a ga mowanaku ni," is the same as the lower phrase of 3775, composed by the exiled Nakatomi no Yakamori in the latter half of this book, so that across the two halves the vows of men living apart overlap.
The first half of this book gathers the poems of the embassy sent to Silla in the eighth year of Tenpyō (736), arranged in the order of the journey from the departure at Naniwa to the return. A left note reads "the above eleven poems are an exchange," and these opening eleven poems are the parting exchanges between the envoys and their wives before departure. None of the authors is named.

First line, "haroharo ni": "haroharo" is the same as "harubaru," describing great distance.
Second line, "omōyuru kamo": "omohoyu" means to come to mind of itself, and "kamo" is exclamatory; the poem breaks after this second line.
Third line, "shikaredomo": "and yet even so," turning back the loneliness of the upper phrase toward the vow of the lower.
Fourth line, "keshiki kokoro o": "keshi" means strange or out of the ordinary; here it denotes a changing, fickle heart.
Fifth line, "a ga mowanaku ni": "naku" is the nominalized form of the negative "zu," and "ni" is exclamatory: though I have never felt it, a firm denial that closes the poem.
Source: Manyoshu
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