Hito mina wa ima wa nagashi to take to iedo kimi ga mishi kami midaretari tomo

人皆は今は長しとたけと言へど
君が見し髪乱れたりとも

Roma-ji: Hito mina wa ima wa nagashi to take to iedo kimi ga mishi kami midaretari tomo
English Translation: Everyone tells me
"It is long now, bind it up,"
and yet I will not—
this hair that you once saw, love,
though it may lie in disarray.
Meaning: Everyone says it is long now and I should bind it up, but this is the hair you saw, my love, so I will leave it be, even if it is tangled.
Commentary: Book Two Love Poems 124

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems composed when the novice Mikata, not long after marrying the daughter of Sono no Omi Ikuha, fell ill and took to his bed"
Though everyone tells her to bind up her hair now that it is long, she answers that she will leave it as it is, tangled or not, because it is the hair her husband saw, showing her unchanging heart.
According to the headnote, these are three poems from the time when the novice Mikata fell ill soon after marrying the daughter of Sono no Omi Ikuha, and small notes, "Novice Mikata" or "the maiden," appended to each poem identify the speaker. The sequence is an exchange: the husband's question, the wife's answer, and the husband's lament. This is the second, and the note "the maiden" at its end shows that it is the wife's poem. The note has been removed from the text of the poem.
The author, the daughter of Sono no Omi Ikuha, is a woman whose name has not come down to us; she was the wife of the novice Mikata. Her father, Sono no Omi Ikuha, is also otherwise unknown.

The first line, "hito mina wa," means "everyone around me."
The second line, "ima wa nagashi to," means "that it is long now," taking up "nagaki" of the preceding poem.
In the third line, "take to iedo," take is the imperative of taku: though they tell me to bind it up. It answers "takeba" of the preceding poem.
The fourth line, "kimi ga mishi kami," means "the hair you saw," showing she treasures it as hair that holds memories of her husband.
In the final line, "midaretari tomo," tomo is a concessive: even if it is disordered. The words "I will leave it so" are implied.
Author: Daughter of Sono no Omi Ikuha
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Takeba nure takaneba nagaki imo ga kami kono koro minu ni kakiiretsuramu ka
Next Poem: Tachibana no kage fumu michi no yachimata ni mono o zo omou imo ni awazu shite