Shiratama o te ni makishi yori wasureji to omoikeraku wa nani ka owaramu

白玉を手に巻きしより忘れじと
思ひけらくは何か終らむ

Roma-ji: Shiratama o te ni makishi yori wasureji to omoikeraku wa nani ka owaramu
English Translation: Ever since I wound
these white pearls about my hand,
"I will not forget,"
so I thought, and how could that
ever come to any end
Meaning: Ever since I wound these white pearls about my hand, I have thought, "I will never forget"; how could that thought ever come to an end?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2447

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
From the moment the speaker wound the white pearls about the hand, the vow never to forget has stayed in the heart; how could it ever end? Through a rhetorical question, the poem asserts that the vow made on winning a beloved, figured as white pearls, will never change.
Like the preceding poem, 2446, it begins with "white jewels" and shares the image of pearls wound about the hand. Against the preceding poem's joy of possession, this poem sings of the lasting vow made from that moment, and the poems on white jewels continue into the next poem, 2448.
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, "shiratama o": "white jewels." As in the preceding poem, the pearls are a figure for the beloved woman.
Second line, "te ni makishi yori": "since I wound them about my hand." With "shi," the attributive of the past auxiliary "ki," and "yori," marking a starting point, it looks back to the time of winning the beloved.
Third line, "wasureji to": "that I will not forget." The negative-volitional auxiliary "ji" expresses a firm inner vow.
Fourth line, "omoikeraku wa": "what I thought." "Keraku" is the ku form of the auxiliary "keri," gathering the thought of that time as if into a noun.
Fifth line, "nani ka owaramu": "how could it end?" The particle "ka" is rhetorical, closing in concord with the attributive of the auxiliary "mu."
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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