Karakoromo tatsu o matsu ma no hodo koso wa waga shikitae no chiri mo tsumorame

English Translation

In the very while
that I am waiting for your
robe to be cut out
the dust on the bedding I
have spread will go on gathering

Meaning

In the very while that I wait for your robe to be cut, the dust on the bedding I have spread will go on gathering.

Commentary

140 Dust on the Grass Pillow

While the late Prince of the Ministry of Military Affairs was visiting the daughter of the Major Counsellor Noboru, he once had a temporary bed made up in the aisle room rather than in the usual place, and spent a night there and went home. He did not come again for some time, and then sent to ask whether the bed laid in the aisle room was still there or had been put away; and her answer was "Shikikaezu arishi nagara ni kusamakura chiri nomi zo iru harau hito nami". His reply was "Kusamakura chiri harai ni wa karakoromo tamoto yutaka ni tatsu o mate kashi", and she answered again with "Karakoromo tatsu o matsu ma no hodo koso wa waga shikitae no chiri mo tsumorame", at which he came to her. On another occasion, when he sent word that he was going hunting at Uji, her answer was "Mikari suru Kurikomayama no shika yori mo hitori nuru mi zo wabishikarikeru". That is the whole of the section.
The Prince of the Ministry of Military Affairs appears in the ninetieth, hundred and sixth, hundred and seventh, hundred and thirty-seventh and hundred and thirty-ninth sections. The Major Counsellor Noboru is Minamoto no Noboru, who held that office; the poet is his daughter. The aisle room ran around the outside of the main hall.
The setting is the moment his reply reached her.
What prompted it is his, "Kusamakura chiri harai ni wa karakoromo tamoto yutaka ni tatsu o mate kashi", telling her to wait until a robe was made.
After this reply the prince came to her. The section goes on to the poem about the hunt on another occasion.

She takes his robe and its cutting exactly as he gave them, and turns to the waiting they involve.
An emphatic construction in the third line governs the verb that ends the poem: in that very interval and no other.
The word in the fourth line means bedding, spread out to lie on, and contains the sound of the verb for laying it, answering the opening of her earlier poem.
The closing says the dust will go on gathering. If she must wait for a robe, the dust will deepen while she waits. She extends his own excuse and lets its absurdity show — and it brought him. A single poem moved a man.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

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