Tabi to ieba koto ni zo yasuki sukunaku mo imo ni koitsutsu sube nakenaku ni

旅といへば言にぞやすきすくなくも
妹に恋ひつつすべなけなくに

Roma-ji: Tabi to ieba koto ni zo yasuki sukunaku mo imo ni koitsutsu sube nakenaku ni
English Translation: A journey, they say,
so easy in a word;
but no small thing
is the helplessness I feel
longing for my love
Meaning: Call it a journey, and it is easy enough in words; yet no small thing is the helplessness I feel as I go on longing for my wife.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Exchange Poems of Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome 3743

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome"
He sings that calling his situation in exile a journey is easy enough in words, but the helplessness of longing for his wife is no ordinary thing. It holds his feeling that the situation people lightly call a "journey" is in truth the suffering of exile. The first two lines, "tabi to ieba koto ni zo yasuki," are repeated in 3763 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 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, "tabi to ieba": if one calls it a journey, naming his exile a journey.
Second line, "koto ni zo yasuki": "koto" means words, and "zo" is a binding particle resolved by the attributive "yasuki": easy in words. The poem breaks after the second line. 3763 of this book has the same first two lines.
Third line, "sukunaku mo": answering the negative in the last line, it means not just a little, extraordinarily.
Fourth line, "imo ni koitsutsu": going on longing for my wife.
Fifth line, "sube nakenaku ni": "sube nashi" means helpless, and "naku" is the nominalized negative; answering the third line: though the helplessness is no small thing, the poem ends.
Author: Nakatomi no Yakamori
Source: Manyoshu
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