Shikitae no makura toyomite yoru mo nezu omou hito ni wa nochi mo au mono o

敷栲の枕響みて夜も寝ず
思ふ人には後も逢ふものを

Roma-ji: Shikitae no makura toyomite yoru mo nezu omou hito ni wa nochi mo au mono o
English Translation: On the spread-out cloth
my pillow rustles loudly;
all night I cannot sleep:
the one I love so dearly
one day I shall surely meet
Meaning: I toss until my pillow sounds and do not sleep all night; one who loves like this should surely meet the beloved in time, and yet...
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2515

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Questions and Answers"
The speaker says that one who lies awake all night thinking of the beloved, tossing until the pillow sounds, ought to meet that person someday. While voicing the pain of sleepless nights, the poem holds both the conviction that such love cannot go unmet and the lament that the meeting still does not come.
The left note reads "the two poems above," and with the next poem it forms one exchange. Where this poem pleads sleepless nights that make the pillow sound, the next answers: does a pillow speak to anyone? That pillow has grown over with moss. Both begin with "shikitae no," and question and answer are traded around the same object, the pillow.
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": a pillow word attached to "pillow." "Shikitae" is cloth spread on a bed, so it leads to words for bedding.
Second line, "makura toyomite": "the pillow sounding." Tossing and turning again and again without sleep is expressed as the pillow making noise.
Third line, "yoru mo nezu": "not sleeping even at night." The particle "mo," "even at night," deepens the pain of sleeplessness.
Fourth line, "omou hito ni wa": "for one who loves." The particle "wa" singles out the case of one who loves deeply.
Fifth line, "nochi mo au mono o": "will meet later, and yet." "Mono o" expresses both contrast and exclamation, leaving unfinished the lament that a meeting that should come does not.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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