Kimi ni koi urabure oreba kuyashiku mo waga shitabimo no yū te itazura ni

君に恋ひうらぶれ居れば悔しくも
我が下紐の結ふ手いたづらに

Roma-ji: Kimi ni koi urabure oreba kuyashiku mo waga shitabimo no yū te itazura ni
English Translation: Longing after you,
I sit downcast and forlorn;
bitter is the thought:
the hand that ties my under-sash
ties it only all in vain
Meaning: As I sit forlorn, longing for you, how bitter it is: my hand ties up my loosened under-sash again, all for nothing.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2409

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
Downcast with longing, the speaker sees her under-sash come undone, an omen of meeting a lover, yet he does not come, and the hand that reties it labors in vain. Since the beloved is addressed as "kimi," the poem is thought to be spoken by a woman. The bitterness of trusting an omen only to be let down is conveyed through the concrete gesture of tying a cord.
Where the preceding poem, 2408, speaks of the loosening cord with hope, this one speaks of the omen coming to nothing, so the two set expectation and disappointment side by side. Poem 2413 in this book also speaks of the under-sash coming undone.
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, "kimi ni koi": "longing for you." In old usage "kou" took the particle "ni" to express yearning for someone.
Second line, "urabure oreba": "when I sit forlorn." "Urabure" means the spirit drooping and withering, and "oreba" expresses a settled condition.
Third line, "kuyashiku mo": "how bitter," a feeling that leads on to "itazura ni" in the last line, announcing beforehand the futility of waiting.
Fourth line, "waga shitabimo no": "of my under-sash." The under-sash was the cord of an undergarment, and its coming undone of itself was an omen of meeting a lover. The word answers the "cord coming undone" of the preceding poem.
Fifth line, "yū te itazura ni": "the hand that ties it, in vain." The line is hypermetric, and breaking off with "itazura ni" leaves an aftertaste of feeling with nowhere to go.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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