Imo ga ieji chikaku ariseba miredo akanu Marifu no ura o misemashi mono o

妹が家路近くありせば見れど飽かぬ
麻里布の浦を見せましものを

Roma-ji: Imo ga ieji chikaku ariseba miredo akanu Marifu no ura o misemashi mono o
English Translation: If only the way
to my love's home were near,
this bay I never tire of,
the Bay of Marifu,
I would show to her
Meaning: If only the road to my wife's home were close at hand, I would show her Marifu Bay, which I could gaze upon forever.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3635

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Eight poems composed when passing Marifu Bay in Kuga District, Suō Province"
He sings that if his wife's home were near, he could show her Marifu Bay, of which he never tires. Before the beautiful view, he laments that the wife with whom he would share it is far away. The wish to show beautiful things to his wife also runs through the poems on white pearls, 3614 and 3628 of this book, a feeling that recurs throughout the travel sequence. "Miredo akanu Marifu no ura" is the same expression as in 3630 of the sequence.
According to the headnote, this is one of eight poems composed when passing Marifu Bay in Kuga District, Suō Province, thought to be the coast of present-day Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The author is not named.

First line, "imo ga ieji": "ieji" is the road home, here the way to the house where his wife lives. The line has six syllables, hypermetric.
Second line, "chikaku ariseba": "se" is regarded as the irrealis of the past "ki"; "seba" is a counterfactual condition answering "mashi" in the last line.
Third line, "miredo akanu": never tiring however much one looks, a six-syllable hypermetric line like the third line of 3630 of this book.
Fourth line, "Marifu no ura o": Marifu Bay in Suō Province, praised throughout the eight poems.
Fifth line, "misemashi mono o": "mashi" is counterfactual and "mono o" an exclamation with an adversative turn: I would show it to her, the poem ends in regret.
Source: Manyoshu
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