Hinakumori Usui no saka o koeshi da ni imo ga koishiku wasuraenu kamo

ひな曇り碓氷の坂を越えしだに
妹が恋しく忘らえぬかも

Roma-ji: Hinakumori Usui no saka o koeshi da ni imo ga koishiku wasuraenu kamo
English Translation: Hazy-sunned and dim
is the Usui slope, and when
I had crossed it,
such longing for my wife arose
I could not forget her then
Meaning: When I crossed the slope of Usui, I longed so for my wife that I could not put her out of mind.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4407

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."
When I crossed the slope of Usui, I longed for my wife and could not forget her: the poem sings of his feelings on crossing the border. According to the left note, it closes the poems presented by Kamitsukeno no Suruga, escort officer of Kōzuke. Usui Pass lies between Kōzuke and Shinano, and he says that crossing the pass at the edge of his home province made his longing for his wife grow keener than ever. Shida is an eastern word for "time."
The author, Osadabe no Koiwasaki, was a guard from Kōzuke; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "hinakumori," "the sun faintly clouded," is a pillow word for usu in Usui.
The second line, "Usui no saka o," names Usui Pass on the border of Kōzuke and Shinano.
The third line, "koeshi da ni," "when I crossed," uses shida, an eastern word for "time," also found in a Hitachi guard's poem.
The fourth line, "imo ga koishiku," means "longing for my wife."
The closing line, "wasuraenu kamo," "I cannot forget her," ends in the exclamatory kamo.
Author: Osadabe no Koiwasaki
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Waga iwaro ni yukamo hito mo ga kusamakura tabi wa kurushi to tsugeyaramaku mo
Next Poem: Iebito no iwae ni ka aramu tairakeku funade wa shinu to oya ni mōsane