Iwane fumi kasanaru yama wa nakeredomo awanu hikazu o koi ya wataran - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

岩根踏み重なる山はなけれども
逢はぬ日数を恋ひや渡らん

Roma-ji: Iwane fumi kasanaru yama wa nakeredomo awanu hikazu o koi ya wataran
English Translation: Though there are no peaks
layered high between us two
with rocks that we must tread,
must I spend the many days
we do not meet in longing?
Meaning: Though no layered mountains with rocky paths to tread stand between us, must I go on longing for you through all the days we do not meet?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 969

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem asks: though no layered mountains, whose rocky roots one must tread to cross, lie between us, must I go on longing through the days we do not meet? It sings of the frustration of passing day after day in longing for a lover who, though not far away, cannot be met.
It is the last of the four poems attributed to Sakanoue no Iratsume.
The author, "Sakanoue no Iratsume", is Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue, daughter of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and half-sister of Ōtomo no Tabito. A leading woman poet of the Man'yōshū, she was the aunt of Ōtomo no Yakamochi and also became his mother-in-law when her daughter, Sakanoue no Ōiratsume, married him.
A similar poem appears in Book Eleven of the Man'yōshū, with the lower verse "awanu hi maneme koiwataru kamo," and another variant is found in section seventy-four of the Tales of Ise.

First line, "iwane fumi," means "treading the great rocks rooted in the earth," of crossing a steep mountain path.
Second line, "kasanaru yama wa," means "layered mountains."
Third line, "nakeredomo," means "though there are none," an adversative meaning that nothing separates the two.
Fourth line, "awanu hikazu o," means "the days we do not meet." It shares the grief of rare meetings with "miraku sukunaku" in 967 and "miru yoshi mo gana" in 968 of this book, drawing together Sakanoue no Iratsume's series.
Final line, "koi ya wataran," means "must I go on longing," concluding with the attributive of the conjectural "ran" in answer to the binding particle "ya."
Author: Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
Source: Shui Wakashu
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