Au koto o kyō matsu ga e no tamukegusa ikuyo shioruru sode to ka wa shiru - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢ふことを今日まつが枝の手向草
幾夜しほるる袖とかは知る

Roma-ji: Au koto o kyō matsu ga e no tamukegusa ikuyo shioruru sode to ka wa shiru
English Translation: For our meeting day
I wait—like the pine-branch where
offerings are tied;
how many nights drenched with tears
this sleeve has been, do you know
Meaning: Waiting for today, when at last we might meet, I am like the offerings tied to a pine branch by the shore. Do you know through how many nights my sleeves have wilted with tears? Surely you do not.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 1153

Headnote: "From a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence on the early days of a love affair. The heart that waits for today's meeting is entrusted to the offerings tied to a pine branch, and she asks whether her lover knows through how many nights her sleeves have wilted with tears. According to the headnote, it is one of a hundred-poem sequence.
The author, "Princess Shokushi," is a daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa. She served as Kamo Priestess and later took holy orders. She studied poetry under Fujiwara no Shunzei and is one of the foremost women poets of the Shinkokinshū.
The source poem is from Book One of the Man'yōshū: "On the pine branches / by the beach of white-capped waves / the tied offerings— / through how many ages now / have the years gone passing by?" It muses on how many ages the offerings tied to a beach pine have endured, and this poem takes its "pine branch," "offerings," and "how many ages" into a love poem.

The first line, "au koto o," continues to use the word "au," "to meet," from the four preceding poems. Where those poems speak of the heart after first meeting, this one stands on the side of the one waiting for the day of meeting.
In the second line, "kyō matsu ga e no," "matsu" is a pivot word meaning both "to wait for today" and "pine" in "pine branch." The heart that waits for today's meeting passes on into the image of the pine branch.
The third line, "tamukegusa," refers to offerings tied to pine branches for the gods, a word taken directly from the Man'yōshū source. The upper verse entrusts the waiting heart to these offerings and leads into the lower verse.
The fourth line, "ikuyo shioruru," means "wilting through how many nights." Turning the source poem's "how many ages" into "how many nights," it replaces the long years the offerings have endured with the count of nights spent weeping for love.
The last line, "sode to ka wa shiru," means "do you know it is such a sleeve? surely not." The particle "ka wa" is rhetorical, carrying the reproach that the lover knows nothing of the waiting one's pain. Using an ancient Man'yōshū image, this allusive variation turns it toward a woman's love of waiting.
Author: Princess Shokushi
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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