Shikitae no koromode karete tamamo nasu nabiki ka nuramu wa o machikate ni

敷栲の衣手離れて玉藻なす
靡きか寝らむ我を待ちかてに

Roma-ji: Shikitae no koromode karete tamamo nasu nabiki ka nuramu wa o machikate ni
English Translation: Apart from the sleeves
of our pillowed bed of cloth,
like the jewel-weed,
do you sleep with flowing hair,
weary of waiting for me
Meaning: Parted from my sleeves, do you lie sleeping with your hair flowing like jewel-weed, unable to bear waiting for me?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2483

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Without sleeves exchanged in shared sleep, does she lie alone with her black hair flowing like jewel-weed, unable to bear waiting for me? The poem imagines a distant beloved, voicing a heart that, on a night without meeting, pictures her lonely sleeping form.
This is one of the poems "Expressing Feelings through Things," and like the preceding poem it is set upon jewel-weed. Whereas the preceding poem likened the speaker's own heart to the swaying weed, this one likens the beloved's sleeping figure to it, forming a pair that treats the same weed from both sides. Its fifth line, "wa o machikate ni," connects with the next poem's "kimi o machiidemu" in expressing a waiting heart.
According to the left note this poem comes from the Hitomaro Collection, and it is written in the so-called full style, in which particles and similar elements are recorded.
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, "shikitae no": cloth spread on a bed, a pillow word for "koromode" (sleeves).
Second line, "koromode karete": "parted from my sleeves," that is, not sharing the exchange of sleeves in sleep.
Third line, "tamamo nasu": "like jewel-weed." "Nasu" is a suffix meaning "like."
Fourth line, "nabiki ka nuramu": "does she sleep with hair flowing?" The particle "ka" is answered by the attributive form of the present conjectural auxiliary "ramu," a kakari-musubi construction, and the poem pauses here.
Fifth line, "wa o machikate ni": "unable to bear waiting for me." "Katen ni" means unable to endure, and through the inversion the beloved's waiting heart is revealed at the end.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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