Wagimoko ga ware o okuru to shirotae no sode hitsu made ni nakishi omōyu

我妹子が我れを送ると白栲の
袖漬つまでに泣きし思ほゆ

Roma-ji: Wagimoko ga ware o okuru to shirotae no sode hitsu made ni nakishi omōyu
English Translation: My dearest wife,
as she came to see me off,
her sleeves of white cloth
soaked through until they were wet,
she wept: so I remember
Meaning: I remember how my wife, seeing me off, wept until the white sleeves of her robe were soaked.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2518

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
The speaker recalls his wife, who saw him off weeping until her white sleeves were soaked through. A man parted from her and on a journey calls up her tears at their farewell, and his deep feeling for her, unchanged by distance, shows plainly.
This is a poem expressing feelings directly, and the concrete image of tears soaking white sleeves conveys how vivid the memory remains. Poem 2526 longs to see quickly the wife's joyful smile on arriving home, so that the tears of parting and the smile of reunion form a pair.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "wagimoko ga": "my dear wife." "Wagimoko" is a man's affectionate word for his wife or beloved, and "ga" marks the subject.
Second line, "ware o okuru to": "saying she would see me off." The particle "to" conveys the wife's intent, picturing the scene of departure.
Third line, "shirotae no": a pillow word attached to "sleeve." Meaning white cloth of paper-mulberry fiber, it makes vivid the tears soaking into the white sleeves.
Fourth line, "sode hitsu made ni": "until the sleeves were soaked." "Hitsu" means to be wet or steeped, and "made ni" marks how many tears fell.
Fifth line, "nakishi omōyu": "that she wept comes to mind." "Shi" is the attributive of the past auxiliary "ki," and "omōyu" means to come to mind of itself, conveying the poignancy of a memory that rises unbidden.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Tarachine no haha ni sawaraba itazura ni imashi mo are mo koto narubeshi ya
Next Poem: Okuyama no maki no itado o oshi hiraki shie ya idekone nochi wa nani semu