Ashihiki no na ou yamasuge oshifusete kimi shi musubaba awazu arame ya mo

あしひきの名負ふ山菅押し伏せて
君し結ばば逢はずあらめやも

Roma-ji: Ashihiki no na ou yamasuge oshifusete kimi shi musubaba awazu arame ya mo
English Translation: Mountain sedge that bears
the name of the foot-weary hills,
if you press it down
and tie it in a lovers' knot,
how could I not come to you
Meaning: If you press down the mountain sedge, which bears the mountain's name, and tie it in a lovers' knot, how could I fail to meet you?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2477

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The poem urges the beloved to resolve: if you bind our vow firmly, as one presses down mountain sedge to tie it, how could I fail to meet you? Grounded in the custom of tying grasses as a token of a pledge, it expresses a heart that waits for the beloved to take decisive action.
This is one of the poems "Expressing Feelings through Things," set upon mountain sedge, and it is the last of the series on sedge that began with poem 2470 of this book. Whereas poem 2473 of this book lamented that no one unties the tied cords, this poem invites a meeting if the beloved will tie the knot, the two contrasting around the act of tying.
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, "ashihiki no": a pillow word for "yama" (mountain), here attached to the "yama" of mountain sedge.
Second line, "na ou yamasuge": "the mountain sedge that bears the name of the mountain," stressing that this sedge carries the name "yama" that the pillow word calls up.
Third line, "oshifusete": "pressing it down," the act of bending grass to tie it, figuring a beloved who binds a pledge with firm resolve.
Fourth line, "kimi shi musubaba": "if you tie it." "Shi" is an emphatic particle, and "ba" attached to the irrealis form expresses a condition.
Fifth line, "awazu arame ya mo": "how could I not meet you?" "Me" is the perfective form of the conjectural auxiliary "mu," "ya" is rhetorical, and "mo" exclamatory; the rhetorical question closes the poem with strong assurance.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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