Kyō kyō to waga matsu kimi wa ishikawa no kai ni majirite ari to iwazu ya mo

今日今日と我が待つ君は石川の
峡に交りてありといはずやも

Roma-ji: Kyō kyō to waga matsu kimi wa ishikawa no kai ni majirite ari to iwazu ya mo
English Translation: You for whom I wait,
thinking "Today, today he'll come"—
in Ishikawa's
valley, mingled with the earth,
do they not tell me you lie?
Meaning: You for whom I have waited, thinking "today, surely today"—do they not say you lie in the valley of the Ishikawa, mingled with its earth?
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 224

Headnote: "Two poems composed by his wife, Yosami no Otome, at the time of the death of Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro"
The poem conveys the shock and grief of a wife who, after waiting day after day for her husband's return, is told that he lies buried in the valley of the Ishikawa.
According to the headnote, this is the first of two poems composed by Hitomaro's wife, Yosami no Otome, at his death. It is arranged so that the wife answers, from her side, Hitomaro's thought in the preceding poem that she must be waiting without knowing.
The author, Yosami no Otome, was the wife of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro and is otherwise unknown.
A note records a variant with tani ni, "in the valley," for kai ni in the fourth line. Here the main text is followed.

The first line, "kyō kyō to," means "today, today," showing how long she waited day after day for his return.
The second line, "waga matsu kimi wa," means "you for whom I wait." Like 85 by Empress Iwa no Hime in this book, it is the poem of a wife waiting for her husband, but here he is already dead.
In the third line, "ishikawa no," the Ishikawa is said to be a river in Iwami, though its location is unsettled.
In the fourth line, "kai ni majirite," kai is a valley: buried and mingled with the valley's soil and stones.
In the final line, "ari to iwazu ya mo," ya mo is rhetorical: do they not say so? It is hypermetric, with eight syllables.
Author: Yosami no Otome
Source: Manyoshu
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