Kurokami ni shirokami majiri oyuru made kakaru koi ni wa imada awanaku ni

黒髪に白髪交り老ゆるまで
かかる恋にはいまだ逢はなくに

Roma-ji: Kurokami ni shirokami majiri oyuru made kakaru koi ni wa imada awanaku ni
English Translation: Into my black hair
white strands mingle now, and yet
all the way to age,
such a love as this has never
come to me until this day
Meaning: White hairs have come into my black hair and I have grown old, yet never until now have I met with a love like this.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 563

Headnote: "Two poems by Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue"
Though white has come into her black hair and she has grown old, the poet says, she has never before met with a love like this. As if in answer to Ōtomo no Momoyo's poem just before, "yet in my old age such a love as this I have come to meet," it uses the same words "such a love," and some read it as a playful reply to his poem.
The author, Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue, was a daughter of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and half-sister of Ōtomo no Tabito. She left many poems in the Man'yōshū and is esteemed as a leading woman poet.

First line, "Into my black hair," names black hair as the emblem of youth.
Second line, "white strands mingle now, and yet," means white hairs mixed in, showing the years; set against the first line, it makes age vivid.
Third line, "all the way to age," means until I have grown old, echoing "in my old age" in poem 559.
Fourth line, "such a love as this has never," means such a love, the same words as "such a love" in poem 559.
Fifth line, "come to me until this day," uses awanaku, the nominalized form of the negative, with ni carrying a note of feeling: I have never yet met it.
Author: Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
Source: Manyoshu
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