Aoyagi no eda kirioroshi yudane maki yuyushiki kimi ni koiwataru kamo

青楊の枝伐り下ろしゆ種蒔き
ゆゆしき君に恋ひわたるかも

Roma-ji: Aoyagi no eda kirioroshi yudane maki yuyushiki kimi ni koiwataru kamo
English Translation: Cutting down the boughs
of the green willow tree
and sowing sacred seed,
for you, too awesome to approach,
I go on longing still
Meaning: As one cuts green willow boughs and sows the sacred seed rice, so I go on longing for you, whom I hold in awe and dare not approach.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3603

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Old poems recited to suit the place"
A love poem about going on longing for someone too awesome to approach. It uses as its preface a farming rite, setting willow boughs in the rice nursery and sowing purified seed rice, and from the sound of "yudane" it leads into "yuyushiki." A left note reads "the above three are love poems," and this is the first of three love poems recited as old poems. By reciting old love poems on the journey, the travelers are thought to have overlaid them with their own longing for those left at home.
According to the headnote, 3602 to 3610 of this book are old poems the travelers recited along the way as suited to the place. Poems not of their own making were thus taken into the travel sequence, showing how people of the time shared old poems and adapted them to the occasion.

First line, "aoyagi no": a willow freshly budded and green; it was the custom, it is said, to set willow in the water inlet of the rice nursery to worship the god of the fields.
Second line, "eda kirioroshi": cutting and bringing down willow branches, an act of the farming rite.
Third line, "yudane maki": "yudane" is purified, sacred seed rice. The lines up to here form a preface that, repeating the sound "yu," leads into "yuyushiki" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "yuyushiki kimi ni": "yuyushi" means holy and awe-inspiring, describing someone hard to approach.
Fifth line, "koiwataru kamo": "wataru" means to continue through time: how I go on longing.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Aoniyoshi Nara no miyako ni tanabikeru ama no shirakumo miredo akanu kamo
Next Poem: Imo ga sode wakarete hisa ni narinuredo hitohi mo imo o wasurete omoe ya