Sakimori ni yuku wa ta ga se to tou hito o miru ga tomoshisa monomoi mo sezu

防人に行くは誰が背と問ふ人を
見るが羨しさ物思ひもせず

Roma-ji: Sakimori ni yuku wa ta ga se to tou hito o miru ga tomoshisa monomoi mo sezu
English Translation: "Whose husband is that
going off as a frontier guard?"
so someone asks,
and how I envy her to see,
free of all this grief of mine
Meaning: Someone asks, "Whose husband is that, going off as a frontier guard?" How I envy her, untouched by such sorrow.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4425

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."
How I envy the one who asks, "Whose husband is that, going as a guard?" without a care: the poem sings of a wife's grief at sending her husband off as a guard. The left note says these are eight frontier guard poems of former years, copied out by Iware no Morokimi, a recording officer of the Ministry of Military Affairs, and sent to Ōtomo no Yakamochi, its Junior Assistant Minister. This is the first, renowned among the guards' poems for sharply capturing the heart of a wife seeing her husband off. In the gap between the bystander who asks idly and herself who must bear it, the depth of her sorrow shows.
The author's name has not come down. It is thought to be by a wife who sent her husband off as a frontier guard.

The first line, "sakimori ni," "as a frontier guard," names where her husband is going.
The second line, "yuku wa ta ga se to," "whose husband is it going?" quotes the questioner.
The third line, "tou hito o," "the one who asks," is a bystander who knows nothing of her grief.
The fourth line, "miru ga tomoshisa," uses tomoshi, "enviable," and pauses on the noun tomoshisa.
The closing line, "monomoi mo sezu," is inverted, adding the reason for her envy: free of all care.
Source: Manyoshu
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