Iebito wa michi mo shimimi ni kayoedomo waga matsu imo ga tsukai konu kamo

家人は道もしみみに通へども
我が待つ妹が使来ぬかも

Roma-ji: Iebito wa michi mo shimimi ni kayoedomo waga matsu imo ga tsukai konu kamo
English Translation: Though the people of
the house throng along the road
coming and going,
the messenger from my love
for whom I wait does not come
Meaning: Though the people of the house come and go so thickly that they fill the road, the messenger from my beloved, for whom I wait, does not come.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2529

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
People of the house come and go until the road overflows with them, yet the one messenger he longs for, from his wife, alone fails to come: this is a man's love poem of lament. Setting the bustling traffic of others against his own loneliness as he waits for a single word, it states frankly how hard it is to wait.
Waiting for messengers recurs throughout this part of the book: poem 2543 is a woman who cannot bear to wait for her lover's messenger, and poem 2545 is one who sends a messenger back. A waiting man and a waiting woman, a messenger who never comes and a messenger sent away, stand side by side, showing many scenes of love's tidings.
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, "iebito wa": "the people of the house." The particle "wa" sets them in contrast with "the messenger from my love" in the fourth and fifth lines.
Second line, "michi mo shimimi ni": "so densely that they fill the road." "Shimimi ni" describes something thickly crowded, without a gap.
Third line, "kayoedomo": "though they go back and forth." The concessive "domo" takes up the busy traffic of the upper verse and turns to the lament of the lower.
Fourth line, "waga matsu imo ga": "of my love for whom I wait." "Imo" is a word a man uses fondly of his wife or lover.
Fifth line, "tsukai konu kamo": "the messenger does not come." The final particle "kamo" expresses deep feeling, closing the poem with a sigh over tidings that never arrive.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Sa nenu yo wa chiyo mo ari tomo waga seko ga omoi kuyubeki kokoro wa motaji
Next Poem: Aratama no kie ga takegaki amime yu mo imo shi mie naba are koime yamo