Kaku bakari koimu mono zo to omowaneba imo ga tamoto o makanu yo mo ariki

かくばかり恋ひむものぞと思はねば
妹が手本をまかぬ夜もありき

Roma-ji: Kaku bakari koimu mono zo to omowaneba imo ga tamoto o makanu yo mo ariki
English Translation: Never did I think
that love could bring such longing,
and so, thinking not,
there were nights I did not lay
my head upon my love's arm
Meaning: Because I never dreamed that love could make me long like this, there were nights when I slept without resting my head upon my beloved's arm.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2547

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
Never imagining that love could hurt so much, the speaker once let some nights pass without sleeping on the beloved's arm, and now regrets those days. Setting the careless past against the unbearable longing of the present, the poem expresses the weight of love that is only understood once the lovers are kept apart.
The headnote "Expressing One's Feelings Directly" names a category of poems that state the heart's thoughts openly without speaking through objects, and this poem too confesses its regret without ornament. The opening "kaku bakari" also appears in the third line of poem 2368 at the head of Book Eleven, and it recurs in the love poems of this book as a measure of love's pain. The next poem begins in a similar way with "kaku dani mo," and the two are placed side by side.
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, "kaku bakari": "to this extent," pointing to the degree of the pain of love felt now.
Second line, "koimu mono zo to": "that it would be such longing." The auxiliary "mu" expresses conjecture, "zo" gives strong emphasis, and "to" closes the content of the thought.
Third line, "omowaneba": "since I did not think." The perfective form "ne" of the negative auxiliary "zu" with "ba" expresses a definite cause.
Fourth line, "imo ga tamoto o": "tamoto" is the arm from elbow to shoulder, and "imo" is the affectionate word a man uses for his wife or sweetheart.
Fifth line, "makanu yo mo ariki": "there were nights I did not pillow my head on it." The past auxiliary "ki" recalls a personally experienced past, closing the poem with regret.
Source: Manyoshu
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