Azusayumi hikaba manimani yorame domo nochi no kokoro o shirikatenu kamo

梓弓引かばまにまに寄らめども
後の心を知りかてぬかも

Roma-ji: Azusayumi hikaba manimani yorame domo nochi no kokoro o shirikatenu kamo
English Translation: Catalpa bow—
if you draw me, as you will,
I would yield to you,
but what your heart may be later
is a thing I cannot know.
Meaning: Like a catalpa bow, if you draw me I would come to you as you wish, but I cannot know what your heart will be in days to come.
Commentary: Book Two Love Poems 98

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Five poems from the time when the Meditation Master Kume courted Lady Ishikawa"
She reveals her true feeling: if he asks, she may well yield, but she worries whether his heart will change later.
According to the headnote, these are five poems from the time when the Meditation Master Kume courted Lady Ishikawa, and small notes, "the Master" or "the Lady," appended to each poem identify the speaker. The sequence is a dialogue in the language of archery: the Master's question, two answers from the Lady, and two replies from the Master. This is the third of them; the note "the Lady" at its end has been removed from the text of the poem.
The author, Lady Ishikawa, is otherwise unknown. Several women called Lady Ishikawa, with the title written in two different ways, appear in the Man'yōshū, and whether they are the same person is not settled.

The first line, "azusayumi," a bow of catalpa wood, is a pillow word for hiku, "to draw." The next poem, 99, begins with the same line.
The second line, "hikaba manimani," means "if you draw, just as you draw."
In the third line, "yorame domo," me is the perfective form of mu and domo is concessive: I might well come near. It overlays the image of a bow's tips drawing together as it is bent.
The fourth line, "nochi no kokoro o," means the other's heart in time to come. The fourth line of the next poem is identical, the Master taking up her words in his answer.
In the final line, "shirikatenu kamo," katenu means "cannot," and kamo is exclamatory: that I cannot know.
Author: Lady Ishikawa
Source: Manyoshu
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