Imo ni koi waga naku namita shikitae no komakura tōri sode sae nurenu

妹に恋ひ我が泣く涙敷栲の
木枕通り袖さへ濡れぬ

Roma-ji: Imo ni koi waga naku namita shikitae no komakura tōri sode sae nurenu
English Translation: Longing for my love,
the tears that I am weeping,
through the bedding cloth,
seep right through my wooden pillow
and wet even my sleeves
Meaning: The tears I weep in longing for my beloved have soaked through my wooden pillow and wet even my sleeves.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2549

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
The tears shed in longing for the beloved soak through a wooden pillow and wet even the sleeves: this poem expresses the grief of nights spent sleeping alone. By the exaggeration of tears passing through a hard wooden pillow, it vividly conveys how endless the tears of love are.
The original text notes a variant: "A certain book has: makura tōrite makeba samushi mo." In that version the second half reads "seeping through the pillow, it is cold to lay my head on," so that the chill of the wet pillow conveys the loneliness of sleeping alone. Here the main text, "komakura tōri sode sae nurenu," has been adopted.
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, "imo ni koi": "longing for my love." "Imo" is the affectionate word a man uses for his wife or sweetheart, showing that this is a man's love poem.
Second line, "waga naku namita": "the tears I weep," naming the tears that are the theme of the poem.
Third line, "shikitae no": a pillow word meaning cloth spread on a bed, attached to "pillow," "bed," or "sleeve"; here it introduces "komakura," the wooden pillow.
Fourth line, "komakura tōri": "soaking through the wooden pillow." The exaggeration of tears passing even through hard wood shows the depth of grief.
Fifth line, "sode sae nurenu": "even my sleeves are wet." The particle "sae" adds the sleeves to the pillow, and the perfective auxiliary "nu" closes the statement.
Source: Manyoshu
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