Natsukuzu no taenu tsukai no yodomereba koto shi mo aru goto omoitsuru kamo

夏葛の絶えぬ使のよどめれば
事しもあるごと思ひつるかも

Roma-ji: Natsukuzu no taenu tsukai no yodomereba koto shi mo aru goto omoitsuru kamo
English Translation: Like the summer vines,
messengers that never ceased
have now fallen still,
so I wondered if perhaps
something had befallen you
Meaning: Your messengers, who never failed like the endless summer vines, stopped coming, and I wondered whether something had happened to you.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 649

Headnote: "A poem by Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue"
The messengers who had come without fail stopped coming, and she wondered whether something had happened. Answering Surugamaro's inquiry after her health, she replies that she too had been worried.
According to the left note, Lady Sakanoue was a daughter of Ōtomo no Yasumaro, the Saho Major Counselor, and Surugamaro a grandson of Ōtomo no Miyuki, the Takechi Minister. Their houses were those of brothers, and as aunt and nephew they sent each other poems asking after one another.
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, "Like the summer vines," is natsukuzu no, a pillow word for "unbroken," since summer kudzu vines stretch on without end.
Second line, "messengers that never ceased," means messengers who never failed.
Third line, "have now fallen still," uses yodomu, "to stagnate": since they have stopped.
Fourth line, "so I wondered if perhaps," means as if something had happened.
Fifth line, "something had befallen you," means so I thought, with the exclamatory kamo.
Author: Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
Source: Manyoshu
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