Shirotae no sode tokikaete kaerikomu tsukihi o yomite yukite komashi o

白栲の袖解き交へて帰り来む
月日を数みて行きて来ましを

Roma-ji: Shirotae no sode tokikaete kaerikomu tsukihi o yomite yukite komashi o
English Translation: With white hempen sleeves
loosened, laid across each other,
till I should come home,
counting all the months and days,
so I should have set out, then
Meaning: I should have lain with you, our white sleeves loosened and entwined, and counted the months and days until my return before I set out on this journey.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 510

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to the long poem (509) that Tajihi no Kasamaro composed when going down to Tsukushi. He regrets that he did not first lie with his wife, sleeves entwined, and count out the months and days until his return before setting out. Following the long poem, which lamented, playing on the name of the seaweed nanoriso ("do not tell"), that he had come away without a word to her, it adds once more his regret at the moment of parting.
The author, Tajihi no Kasamaro, was an official of the early Nara period; the headnote tells us he went down to Tsukushi. The Tajihi clan claimed descent from Emperor Senka.

First line, "With white hempen sleeves," is shirotae no, a pillow word for "sleeve," meaning sleeves of white cloth.
Second line, "loosened, laid across each other," means sleeves undone and exchanged, an image of man and woman sleeping together.
Third line, "till I should come home," uses the conjectural mu: the return that will come; it modifies "months and days" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "counting all the months and days," uses yomu, "to count," meaning counting out the time until his return.
Fifth line, "so I should have set out, then," uses mashi, the auxiliary of counterfactual supposition: I ought to have left only after doing so, a regret for what he failed to do.
Author: Tajihi no Kasamaro
Source: Manyoshu
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