Mezurashiki hito o mimu to ya shika mo senu waga shitahimo no tokewataruramu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

めづらしき人を見むとやしかもせぬ
我が下紐の解けわたるらむ

Roma-ji: Mezurashiki hito o mimu to ya shika mo senu waga shitahimo no tokewataruramu
English Translation: Can it be that I
shall see that dear one once more?
I have done nothing,
yet why do the cords within
keep loosening on their own?
Meaning: Is it that I will see my rare and dear one again? For though I have done nothing to untie them, the cords of my underrobe keep coming loose.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 730

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Drawing on the folk belief that an undergarment cord coming loose by itself foretells a meeting with one's lover, the speaker hopes to see again a lover who has long stayed away. She pins a faint hope on cords that loosen though she has not untied them.
Turning from the preceding sequence on the "color" of the heart, it sings of a heart longing for a sign of meeting. The belief that loosening cords foretell a meeting appears often in waka from the Man'yōshū onward.

The first line, "mezurashiki," means "rarely met, dear," referring to a lover long unseen.
The second line, "hito o mimu to ya," means "is it that I will see that one?", with the particle "ya" forming a kakari-musubi with "ramu" in the last line.
The third line, "shika mo senu," means "though I have not done so," showing that she did not untie the cords herself.
The fourth line, "waga shitahimo no," refers to the cords of the underrobe, whose loosening of itself was taken as a sign of meeting one's lover.
The final line, "tokewataruramu," means "why do they keep coming loose?", closing with the attributive form of the present conjectural "ramu" in answer to the "ya" of the second line.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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