Uruwashi to a ga mou imo o omoitsutsu yukeba ka motona yukiashikaruramu

愛しと我が思ふ妹を思ひつつ
行けばかもとな行き悪しかるらむ

Roma-ji: Uruwashi to a ga mou imo o omoitsutsu yukeba ka motona yukiashikaruramu
English Translation: She whom I hold dear,
thinking ever of my love
as I go along,
is that why, for no reason,
the road is so hard to walk
Meaning: Is it because I go on thinking of my wife, whom I hold so dear, that the road is so hard to walk for no reason at all?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Exchange Poems of Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome 3729

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome"
He wonders whether the road is so hard to walk because he goes on thinking of his dear wife. Restating the difficulty, which in the preceding poem he attributed to the steep mountain path, as due to his thoughts of his wife, he expresses how his heart pulls back toward the capital and his steps will not advance. The upper phrase, "uruwashi to a ga mou imo o," is also used in 3755 of this book.
The author, Nakatomi no Yakamori, was a son of Nakatomi no Azumahito, from the Nakatomi clan in charge of the rites of the gods. He was exiled to Echizen Province for an offense, but was later pardoned and returned to the capital.
A left note reads "the above four poems were composed by Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori on setting out on the road"; the four poems from 3727 to 3730 of this book were made by Yakamori on the way to his place of exile. The latter half of this book contains sixty-three poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome. According to the book's table of contents, when Yakamori took as his wife the young woman, a lady-in-waiting of the palace storehouse office, he was exiled to Echizen Province by imperial decree. The place of exile is thought to be Ajimano in Echizen, near present-day Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture.

First line, "uruwashi to": "uruwashi" means dear, appealing to the heart.
Second line, "a ga mou imo o": my wife whom I love, the same as the second line of 3755 of this book.
Third line, "omoitsutsu": while thinking of her continually.
Fourth line, "yukeba ka motona": "ka" is an interrogative binding particle resolved by the attributive "ramu"; "motona" means without reason, helplessly.
Fifth line, "yukiashikaruramu": "ramu" conjectures the cause of a present matter: is that why it is hard to walk? It takes up "yukiashikarikeri," the last line of the preceding poem, 3728.
Author: Nakatomi no Yakamori
Source: Manyoshu
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