Ina to iedo katare katare to norase koso Shii i wa mōse shiigatari to noru

いなと言へど語れ語れと宣らせこそ
志斐いは申せ強ひ語りと詔る

Roma-ji: Ina to iedo katare katare to norase koso Shii i wa mōse shiigatari to noru
English Translation: Though I say, "No more,"
it is because you command,
"Tell on, tell on,"
that Shii speaks at all—yet you
call these my pressing tales!
Meaning: Though I say "no more," it is only because you command me, "Tell on, tell on," that I, Shii, speak—and yet you call them pressing tales!
Commentary: Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 237

Headnote: "A poem offered in reply by the old woman Shii," with the note "The old woman's name is unknown"
This poem answers the preceding one. Against the Emperor's teasing, Shii retorts that it is the Emperor who begs for stories while she is the one declining. Taking up the same first line, "Though I say, 'No more,'" she reverses the roles of refuser and presser in a witty exchange.
The poet, the old woman Shii, served Empress Jitō and is thought to have been a reciter of old traditions. The note in the headnote says her name is unknown.

First line "Though I say, 'No more'" repeats the first line of the preceding poem and turns the roles around: she is the one refusing.
Second line "Tell on, tell on" repeats the imperative to recreate the Emperor's eager demands.
Third line "because you command": norasu is the honorific of noru, "to declare," and its conditional form with koso means "precisely because you say so."
Fourth line "that Shii speaks": i is an old particle stressing the subject, and mōse, the conditional form of mōsu, concludes the koso construction, stressing that she speaks only because she was told to.
Fifth line "you call these my pressing tales": noru means to declare. Throwing back the very word shiigatari, she ends with a gentle protest to the Emperor.
Author: Old Woman Shii
Source: Manyoshu
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