Asakage ni aga mi wa narinu tamakakiru honoka ni miete inishi ko yue ni

朝影に我が身はなりぬ玉かきる
ほのかに見えて去にし子ゆゑに

Roma-ji: Asakage ni aga mi wa narinu tamakakiru honoka ni miete inishi ko yue ni
English Translation: Like a morning shadow
thin and faint my body grows,
all for that girl who,
like a jewel's dimmest gleam,
appeared to me and was gone
Meaning: I have wasted away to a morning shadow, all because of the girl who appeared so faintly before me and then was gone.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2394

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
Longing for someone who showed herself only for a faint, fleeting moment and then was gone, the speaker laments that he has wasted away like the long, thin shadow cast by the morning sun. The poem tells how love for one glimpsed so briefly has become a longing that wears the body thin.
The phrase "I have become a morning shadow" also appears in poems 2619 and 2664 of this book and was a favored expression for a body worn down by love. "Tamakakiru" here is the same pillow word as "tamakagiru" in poem 2391 of this book, and here it leads to "faintly." The next poem also closes with "for my beloved," suffering on account of the loved one just as this poem's "for that girl" does.
The author is unknown; according to the left note, the poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection. That collection is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he recorded. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jito and Emperor Monmu, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "asakage ni": "into a morning shadow." Shadows cast by the morning sun are long and faint, making them a figure for a body grown thin with love.
Second line, "aga mi wa narinu": "my body has become." It ends with the perfective auxiliary "nu," and the poem breaks after the second line, an inversion that places the reason in the lines that follow.
Third line, "tamakakiru": a pillow word attached to "faintly." It is said to mean the faint gleam of a jewel and is the same word as "tamakagiru."
Fourth line, "honoka ni miete": "appearing faintly," showing that the beloved was seen only for an instant.
Fifth line, "inishi ko yue ni": "because of the girl who went away." "Yue ni" marks a cause, and through inversion it reveals at the close the reason for the lament of the second line.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Tamahoko no michi yukazu araba nemokoro no kakaru koi ni wa awazaramashi o
Next Poem: Yukiyukite awanu imo yue hisakata no amatsuyushimo ni nurenikeru kamo