Waga seko o izuchi yukame to sakitake no sogai ni neshiku imashi kuyashi mo

我が背子をいづち行かめとさき竹の
そがひに寝しく今し悔しも

Roma-ji: Waga seko o izuchi yukame to sakitake no sogai ni neshiku imashi kuyashi mo
English Translation: My dear husband—
where could he go, I thought,
like split bamboo
we lay back to back in sleep,
and now, how I regret it
Meaning: Thinking my husband could never go anywhere, I slept with my back turned to him, like split bamboo—and now, how I regret it.
Commentary: Book Seven Elegies 1412

Headnote: none (Elegies section)
Believing her husband would never go anywhere, the speaker slept with her back to him, and now she regrets it. It is a poem in the voice of a woman who has lost her husband, regretting a small gesture from the days when she thought they would always be together.
It is the ninth poem in the elegy section. Where the poems before it are in the voice of a man mourning his wife, this one is spoken by a woman mourning her husband. The poet is unknown.

The first line, "My dear husband," is spoken from a woman's standpoint.
In the second line, "where could he go, I thought," "me" expresses conjecture in a rhetorical question.
The third line, "like split bamboo," is a pillow word for "sogai" (back to back), since split bamboo halves lie back to back.
The fourth line, "we lay back to back in sleep," refers to sleeping turned away.
The final line, "and now, how I regret it," voices present regret.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Sakiwai no ika naru hito ka kurokami no shiroku naru made imo ga koe o kiku
Next Poem: Niwatsutori kake no tario no midareo no nagaki kokoro mo omōenu kamo