A ga kouru koto mo katarai nagusamemu kimi ga tsukai o machi ya kanetemu

我が恋ふることも語らひ慰めむ
君が使を待ちやかねてむ

Roma-ji: A ga kouru koto mo katarai nagusamemu kimi ga tsukai o machi ya kanetemu
English Translation: Telling of my love,
talking it over with them,
I would find some ease:
for the messenger you send
must I wait beyond all bearing?
Meaning: Your messenger, with whom I would talk of my longing and find some comfort: am I to wait for him beyond all bearing?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2543

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
She would talk over her longing with her lover's messenger and so ease her heart, yet she wonders whether she cannot bear to wait for that messenger: this is a woman's love poem. In the modest wish to talk at least with the messenger, if not the lover himself, the loneliness of days without meeting seeps through.
The fourth and fifth lines, "kimi ga tsukai o machi ya kanetemu," are identical to the lower verse of poem 2548 in this book, showing that this was a conventional phrase. Poem 2529 is a man waiting for his wife's messenger and poem 2545 is one who sends a messenger back, so that poems about messengers are gathered close together.
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, "a ga kouru": "that I long."
Second line, "koto mo katarai": "talking over even that." "Kataru" in the form "katarau" means to talk intimately with one another.
Third line, "nagusamemu": "I would ease my heart." It is the attributive of the volitional "mu" and modifies "your messenger" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "kimi ga tsukai o": "your messenger."
Fifth line, "machi ya kanetemu": "am I unable to wait?" The question particle "ya" is resolved by the attributive of the conjectural "mu"; "kanu" means to be unable, and "te" is the intensifying auxiliary "tsu."
Source: Manyoshu
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