Ōhara no furinishi sato ni imo o okite ware ine kanetsu ime ni mie koso

大原の古りにし里に妹を置きて
我れ寐ねかねつ夢に見えこそ

Roma-ji: Ōhara no furinishi sato ni imo o okite ware ine kanetsu ime ni mie koso
English Translation: In Ohara's village,
that old place now left behind,
I have left my love;
I cannot fall asleep at all;
come, appear to me in dreams
Meaning: I have left my beloved in the old village of Ohara, and I cannot fall asleep. At least let her appear to me in my dreams.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2587

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
A man who lives apart from his wife, having left her in the old village of Ohara, cannot sleep for longing and wishes at least to meet her in a dream. The poem states plainly his yearning for the distant wife through the sleepless night and the wish for a dream.
Ohara is a place in Asuka, thought to be the present Ohara in Asuka Village, Nara. The phrase "the old village of Ohara" also appears in the poem by Emperor Tenmu, poem 103 in Book Two, "Heavy snow has fallen on my village; on the old village of Ohara it will fall later," and it carries the sense of a village grown old after the capital moved away. After the poems on love hidden from others' eyes, a run of love poems on sleepless nights and dreams begins around this poem.
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, "Ōhara no": a place name in Asuka, known as a village associated with the Fujiwara clan. The place name opens the poem.
Second line, "furinishi sato ni": "a village grown old." "Nishi" combines the perfective "nu" and the past "ki," describing a village whose former life has passed.
Third line, "imo o okite": "leaving my beloved there." The line has one syllable too many.
Fourth line, "ware ine kanetsu": "I cannot fall asleep." "Kane" is the auxiliary verb "kanu," meaning to be unable, and "tsu" is the perfective auxiliary. The sense breaks after this fourth line.
Fifth line, "ime ni mie koso": "let her appear in my dreams." "Koso" is a particle expressing a wish directed at another, and the poem closes with the hope that she will appear in a dream.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Hitogoto o shigemi to kimi ni tamazusa no tsukai mo yarazu wasuru to omou na
Next Poem: Yū sareba kimi kimasamu to machishi yo no nagori zo ima mo ine kate ni suru