Niwa ni tatsu asade karihoshi nuno sarasu azumaomina o wasuretamau na

庭に立つ麻手刈り干し布曝す
東女を忘れたまふな

Roma-ji: Niwa ni tatsu asade karihoshi nuno sarasu azumaomina o wasuretamau na
English Translation: In the garden grows
hemp, I cut it, set it to dry,
bleach the woven cloth;
this woman of the eastlands,
do not ever let her fade
Meaning: I who cut and dry the hemp that grows in my garden and bleach the cloth, a woman of the eastern lands, I pray you, do not forget me.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 521

Headnote: "A poem sent by the Maiden of Hitachi when Lord Fujiwara no Umakai was transferred and returned to the capital"
When Fujiwara no Umakai, governor of Hitachi, completed his term and returned to the capital, a young woman of Hitachi sent him this poem. She describes her own humble life, cutting and drying hemp and bleaching cloth, and asks him not to forget such a woman as she. Mindful of the gulf in rank between a nobleman returning to the capital and a woman of the provinces, it is a modest yet heartfelt poem of parting.
The author, the Maiden of Hitachi, was a woman of that province whose name has not come down. Fujiwara no Umakai, a son of Fujiwara no Fuhito, served as governor of Hitachi.

First line, "In the garden grows," means springing up in the garden, the hemp raised at her own house.
Second line, "hemp, I cut it, set it to dry," names asade, hemp, and the work of cutting and drying it, a concrete picture of an eastern woman's daily labor.
Third line, "bleach the woven cloth," means washing woven cloth and laying it in the sun to whiten; the first three lines describe the life of the "eastern woman" of the fourth line.
Fourth line, "this woman of the eastlands," humbles herself as a provincial woman far removed from the people of the capital.
Fifth line, "do not ever let her fade," uses the honorific tamau and the prohibitive na: please do not forget me.
Author: The Maiden of Hitachi
Source: Manyoshu
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