Nubatama no imo ga kurokami koyoi mo ka a ga naki toko ni nabikete nuramu

ぬばたまの妹が黒髪今夜もか
我がなき床に靡けて寝らむ

Roma-ji: Nubatama no imo ga kurokami koyoi mo ka a ga naki toko ni nabikete nuramu
English Translation: Black as berries dark,
my beloved's raven hair,
on this night as well,
on a bed where I am not,
will she spread it out and sleep
Meaning: Tonight again, I wonder, does my beloved sleep with her black hair spread out across a bed where I am not?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2564

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
The speaker imagines that his wife, living apart from him, is again sleeping alone tonight with her black hair spread across a bed where he is absent. By picturing the concrete image of her black hair, the poem sensuously conveys the loneliness of a night without her and his yearning for her.
The words running from "nubatama no" to "kurokami" evoke the darkness of night and call up the sleeping figure of the distant wife like a vision. Imagining not his own lonely sleep but hers, this love poem is filled with consideration for the beloved.
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, "nubatama no": a pillow word attached to "black," "night," and the like, here introducing "kurokami," black hair. Nubatama is the seed of the blackberry lily, and the usage is said to come from its blackness.
Second line, "imo ga kurokami": "my beloved's black hair." "Imo" is the affectionate word a man uses for his wife or sweetheart.
Third line, "koyoi mo ka": "tonight as well?" The particle "ka" poses a question.
Fourth line, "a ga naki toko ni": "on a bed where I am not," showing the bed of solitary sleep without him.
Fifth line, "nabikete nuramu": "is she sleeping with it spread out?" Answering "ka" in the third line, it closes with the attributive form of the present conjectural auxiliary "ramu," a kakari-musubi construction.
Source: Manyoshu
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