A o matsu to kimi ga nurekemu ashihiki no yama no shizuku ni naramashi mono o

我を待つと君が濡れけむあしひきの
山のしづくにならましものを

Roma-ji: A o matsu to kimi ga nurekemu ashihiki no yama no shizuku ni naramashi mono o
English Translation: Waiting there for me,
you were soaked, love, as you say—
if only I had been
the dripping dew that fell on you
from the foot-wearying hills.
Meaning: You were soaked, you say, as you waited for me. If only I could have been those drops falling from the mountain trees.
Commentary: Book Two Love Poems 108

Headnote: "A poem offered by Lady Ishikawa in reply"
Answering Prince Ōtsu, she replies sweetly that she wishes she could have been the mountain drops that soaked him as he waited for her.
Taking in the words of the preceding poem almost unchanged, she turns them around: instead of apologizing for keeping him waiting, she says she would have liked to touch him as the drops did, a fine example of the art of poetic exchange.
The author, Lady Ishikawa, is otherwise unknown. Several women called Lady Ishikawa appear in the Man'yōshū, and exchanges of poems with Prince Ōtsu and Prince Kusakabe are recorded; whether they are one person is not settled.

The first line, "a o matsu to," takes up "imo matsu to" of the preceding poem: waiting for me.
In the second line, "kimi ga nurekemu," kemu is past conjecture: you were soaked, as you say.
The third line, "ashihiki no," a pillow word for yama, takes up the first line of the preceding poem.
The fourth line, "yama no shizuku ni," borrows the second and final lines of the preceding poem unchanged.
In the final line, "naramashi mono o," mashi is counterfactual: if only I had become the drops. It shares its closing form with "shinamashi mono o" in 86 by Empress Iwa no Hime in this book.
Author: Lady Ishikawa
Source: Manyoshu
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