Tabi to ieba koto ni zo yasuki sube mo naku kurushiki tabi mo koto ni masame ya mo

旅と言へば言にぞやすきすべもなく
苦しき旅も言にまさめやも

Roma-ji: Tabi to ieba koto ni zo yasuki sube mo naku kurushiki tabi mo koto ni masame ya mo
English Translation: A journey, they say,
so easy in a word;
but this helpless,
painful journey of mine,
can words convey it more
Meaning: Call it a journey, and it is easy enough in words; but this helpless, painful journey of mine, can it ever be conveyed as more than a word?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Exchange Poems of Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome 3763

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome"
He sings that calling it a journey is easy enough in words, but this helpless, painful journey will not be conveyed to others as more than the word "journey." It expresses frustration that the suffering of exile is dismissed by the world with the light word "journey." The first two lines are the same as in 3743 of this book, so the same lament recurs within the sequence.
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 thirteen poems are by Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori"; the thirteen poems from 3754 to 3766 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 same second line as in 3743 of this book.
Third line, "sube mo naku": helplessly.
Fourth line, "kurushiki tabi mo": this painful journey too, meaning the suffering of exile.
Fifth line, "koto ni masame ya mo": "me" is the realis of the conjectural "mu," and "ya mo" rhetorical: could it be more than the word? Surely not, the poem ends.
Author: Nakatomi no Yakamori
Source: Manyoshu
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