Omou e ni au mono naraba shimashiku mo imo ga me karete are orame ya mo

思ふゑに逢ふものならばしましくも
妹が目離れて我れ居らめやも

Roma-ji: Omou e ni au mono naraba shimashiku mo imo ga me karete are orame ya mo
English Translation: If love alone
could bring us to meet,
then for even a while
would I stay apart from you,
not seeing your face
Meaning: If longing alone could bring us together, would I stay apart from my wife, without seeing her face, even for a little while?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Exchange Poems of Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome 3731

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome"
He laments that if longing alone could bring them together, he would never be apart from his wife even for a while. Through rhetorical question he strongly voices the reality that however much he longs, they cannot meet. It is the first of the fourteen poems Yakamori sent to the young woman from his place of exile, and from here the lament of being unable to meet is sung again and again.
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 fourteen poems are by Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori"; the fourteen poems from 3731 to 3744 of this book were sent by Yakamori to the young woman from 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, "omou e ni": "e" is the same as "yue": because of longing.
Second line, "au mono naraba": if it were something that let us meet, a hypothetical condition.
Third line, "shimashiku mo": even for a little while.
Fourth line, "imo ga me karete": "me karu" means to be apart, not seeing the other's face.
Fifth line, "are orame ya mo": "me" is the realis of the conjectural "mu" and "ya mo" rhetorical: would I remain so? Surely not, the poem ends with a firm denial.
Author: Nakatomi no Yakamori
Source: Manyoshu
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