Samushiro ni koromo katashiki koyoi mo ya ware o matsuramu uji no hashihime - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

さむしろに衣片敷き今宵もや
我を待つらむ宇治の橋姫

Roma-ji: Samushiro ni koromo katashiki koyoi mo ya ware o matsuramu uji no hashihime
English Translation: On a narrow mat
spreading only her own robe,
again tonight, does
she wait for me, I wonder—
the Maiden of Uji Bridge?
Meaning: Spreading only her own robe on her narrow mat, is she waiting for me again tonight, I wonder—the Maiden of Uji Bridge?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 689

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The speaker imagines the Maiden of Uji Bridge sleeping alone and waiting for him again tonight, thinking of a lover he cannot visit. By calling the waiting woman by the name of the legendary Bridge Maiden, the poem lends her an air of mystery.
From this poem through 694, the poems take waiting as their theme, and this one opens the sequence by having the man who keeps her waiting imagine the woman who waits. A left note reads "or, the Jewel Maiden of Uji," showing that a version ending with "Uji no tamahime" was also handed down.
The poem had a great influence on later ages, and many allusive variations were composed in the Shinkokinshū period, beginning with Fujiwara no Teika's "On a narrow mat, the autumn wind of a night of waiting deepens, and she spreads the moonlight for her sleeve—the Maiden of Uji Bridge."

In the first line, "samushiro ni," "samushiro" is a narrow straw mat, "sa" being a prefix; it suggests the lonely bed of one who sleeps alone.
The second line, "koromo katashiki," means spreading only one sleeve of one's own robe to sleep on, expressing sleep without a partner.
The third line, "koyoi mo ya," means "again tonight," with the particle "ya" forming a kakari-musubi with "ramu" in the fourth line and hinting that she has been kept waiting on earlier nights too.
The fourth line, "ware o matsuramu," means "is she waiting for me?", the present conjectural "ramu" imagining the distant lover's present state. It is the line that opens this book's sequence on waiting.
The final line, "Uji no hashihime," is the goddess guarding Uji Bridge, here standing for a lover who lives in Uji. It ends on a noun, and its inversion with the fourth line leaves a lingering sense of calling out to her.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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