Waga seko o ima ka ima ka to idemireba awayuki fureri niwa mo hodoro ni

我が背子を今か今かと出で見れば
沫雪降れり庭もほどろに

Roma-ji: Waga seko o ima ka ima ka to idemireba awayuki fureri niwa mo hodoro ni
English Translation: For my dearest one
"Now, is it now?" I wait,
going out to look—
there the foam-like snow has fallen,
on the garden, lightly spread.
Meaning: Waiting for my love, wondering "Now? Now?", I went out to look—soft snow had fallen, lightly covering the garden.
Commentary: Book Ten Winter Miscellaneous Poems 2323

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Snow"
This poem tells how, waiting eagerly for the beloved, the speaker went out and found soft snow lightly covering the garden. The waiting heart and the scene of snow falling as if in answer overlap. The variant of 2318 also has "niwa mo hodoro ni," so the two poems echo as poems seeing snow in the garden in the morning.

The first line, "waga seko o," uses a woman's word for her beloved.
The second line, "now, now," shows eager waiting.
The third line, "going out to look," is the same as the third line of 2318.
In the fourth line, "awayuki fureri," "ri" marks a continuing state: soft snow had fallen. The poem breaks here.
In the last line, "niwa mo hodoro ni," "hodoro" means lightly; by inversion the snow's appearance is shown at the end.
Source: Manyoshu
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