Iakashite kimi o ba matamu nubatama no waga kurokami ni shimo wa furu tomo

居明かして君をば待たむぬばたまの
我が黒髪に霜は降るとも

Roma-ji: Iakashite kimi o ba matamu nubatama no waga kurokami ni shimo wa furu tomo
English Translation: Sitting up till dawn
I shall wait on for you, love,
though on this black hair,
black as the nubatama,
the frost of the night may fall.
Meaning: I will stay up all night and wait for you, even if the frost comes down upon my black hair.
Commentary: Book Two Love Poems 89

Headnote: "A poem from another text reads"
The speaker resolves to sit up through the night waiting for him, even if frost falls on her black hair.
The headnote reads "a poem from another text," and the poem is appended to Empress Iwa no Hime's four poems as a form transmitted in a different source. A left note says it "appears in the Old Poem Collection," and it is regarded as a variant of 87. Its placement attributes it to the Empress, but it is thought to be a poem from that old collection that became linked to her in transmission.
The author, Empress Iwa no Hime, was the daughter of Katsuragi no Sotsuhiko and the consort of Emperor Nintoku. The Kojiki and the Nihon shoki portray her as a fiercely jealous empress. The poems in this sequence are thought to have been composed by later poets and attributed to her.
Whereas 87 waits for the long years until the hair turns white, this poem speaks of the frost of a single night, treating the same theme on a different scale of time.

The first line, "iakashite," means staying up without sleep until the night gives way to dawn.
The second line, "kimi o ba matamu," is the same as the second line of 87 in this book and states her resolve to wait. The poem pauses after it.
The third line, "nubatama no," is a pillow word for "black"; nubatama is said to be the black seed of the blackberry lily.
The fourth line, "waga kurokami ni," is identical to that of 87 and sets up the contrast of black hair and white frost.
In the final line, "shimo wa furu tomo," tomo is a concessive: even though the night frost should fall on her hair. It closes the poem by inversion, returning to the second line.
Author: Empress Iwa no Hime
Source: Manyoshu
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