Saenaenu mikoto ni areba kanashi imo ga tamakura hanare aya ni kanashi mo

障へなへぬ命にあれば愛し妹が
手枕離れあやに悲しも

Roma-ji: Saenaenu mikoto ni areba kanashi imo ga tamakura hanare aya ni kanashi mo
English Translation: Since it is a command
no one has the power to refuse,
from my dear wife's arms,
her arm I had for pillow,
I am parted, oh such grief
Meaning: Because it is a command that cannot be refused, I have left the pillow of my dear wife's arm, and my grief is beyond words.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4432

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."
Because it is a command that cannot be refused, I have left my dear wife's arm-pillow, and my grief is beyond words: the poem laments between public command and private love. According to the left note, the eight guard poems of former years were copied by Iware no Morokimi, a recording officer of the Ministry of Military Affairs, junior seventh rank upper, and sent to Ōtomo no Yakamochi, its Junior Assistant Minister; this is the last of them. An official of the ministry who knew Yakamochi was collecting guard poems seems to have sent him old ones he had at hand.
The author's name has not come down. It is thought to be by a guard himself.

The first line, "saenaenu," "that cannot be refused," shows the absoluteness of the command.
The second line, "mikoto ni areba," means "since it is my lord's command."
The third line, "kanashi imo ga," means "of my dear wife."
The fourth line, "tamakura hanare," "leaving her arm-pillow," means leaving the bed shared with his wife.
The closing line, "aya ni kanashi mo," "grief beyond words," ends in the exclamatory mo.
Source: Manyoshu
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