Tabiyuki ni yuku to shirazute amoshishi ni koto mausazute ima zo kuyashike

旅行きに行くと知らずて母父に
言申さずて今ぞ悔しけ

Roma-ji: Tabiyuki ni yuku to shirazute amoshishi ni koto mausazute ima zo kuyashike
English Translation: Not knowing I'd go
upon so long a journey,
to mother and father
I said no word of farewell,
and now how I regret it
Meaning: Not knowing I was setting out on such a journey, I came without saying farewell to my mother and father, and now how I regret it.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4376

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
Not knowing it would be such a journey, I came without a word of farewell to my mother and father, and now I regret it: the poem voices regret welling up on the road. It is the fourth poem from Shimotsuke. A Suruga guard's poem likewise regrets coming away without a word to his parents in the bustle of departure, voicing the same feeling. Naming the mother before the father is a usage found in eastern poems.
The author, Kawakami no Oyu, is recorded as a regular guard from Samukawa District in Shimotsuke; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "tabiyuki ni," "on a journey," points to the long road ahead.
The second line, "yuku to shirazute," means "not knowing I would go."
The third line, "amoshishi ni," "to mother and father," names the mother first.
The fourth line, "koto mausazute," "without speaking a word," means he gave no farewell.
The closing line, "ima zo kuyashike," is resolved by zo; kuyashike is a dialect form of kuyashiki. It ends with nearly the same line as the Suruga poem, "ima zo kuyashiki."
Author: Kawakami no Oyu
Source: Manyoshu
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