Asajihara ono ni shime yuu munakoto o ika nari to iite kimi o shi matamu

浅茅原小野に標結ふ空言を
いかなりと言ひて君をし待たむ

Roma-ji: Asajihara ono ni shime yuu munakoto o ika nari to iite kimi o shi matamu
English Translation: Like a marking rope
tied across a field of reeds,
empty are your words;
what then shall I tell myself
as I go on waiting for you
Meaning: Your words are as empty as a marking rope tied across a moor of low reeds; what then can I tell myself as I wait for you?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2466

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Your words are as empty as a marking rope tied across a moor of low reeds; what could she call them to lean on as she waits for you? So a woman laments the uncertainty of a man's words in this love poem. It shows the forlorn heart of one who cannot fully trust a promise and yet can do nothing but wait.
Like the preceding poem, this one speaks through grasses and is spoken from a woman's point of view. Where the preceding poem lamented that even the grass wilts with love, this one uses the marking rope tied on a reed-covered moor as a preface to reproach the emptiness of a man's words. The next poem, 2467, reproaches from a man's side a beloved who says "later," so that the laments of a woman and a man over promises stand side by side.
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, "asajihara": a moor covered with low-growing cogon grass.
Second line, "ono ni shime yuu": "tying a marking rope on the moor." "Shime" is a sign marking land as one's own, and together with the first line these opening lines form a preface, the futility of marking a barren moor leading to "munakoto" (empty words).
Third line, "munakoto o": "empty words, false words." Taking up the preface, it names the unreliability of the other's words.
Fourth line, "ika nari to iite": "calling it what?" The line has eight syllables, one too many (jiamari), and the interrogative "ika nari" shows that she can find no reason to wait.
Fifth line, "kimi o shi matamu": "shall I wait for you?" "Shi" is an emphatic particle, and the conjectural auxiliary "mu" answers the "ika nari" of the fourth line, closing with a lament that she cannot truly wait.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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