Shirotae no sode wa mayuinu wagimoko ga ie no atari o yamazu furishi ni

白栲の袖はまゆひぬ我妹子が
家のあたりをやまず振りしに

Roma-ji: Shirotae no sode wa mayuinu wagimoko ga ie no atari o yamazu furishi ni
English Translation: My sleeves of white cloth
have frayed and worn thin away,
for toward the house
where my own dear girl lives
I waved them without ceasing
Meaning: My white sleeves have frayed and worn thin, for I waved them without ceasing toward the place where my beloved's house stands.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2609

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
Because he waved his sleeves ceaselessly toward the place where his beloved's house stands, his white sleeves have frayed: this is a love poem. Waving the sleeves is a gesture of regret at parting and of sending one's heart to someone far away, and the exaggeration that the sleeves have worn through conveys the depth of his longing.
The opening line, "shirotae no," like the third line of the preceding poem, 2608, places the poem among a run of poems about sleeves and robes. Where the preceding poem tells of sleeping alone on a single sleeve, this one tells of waving the sleeves without rest, portraying love through sleeves from another angle.
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, "shirotae no": a pillow word attached to sleeves and robes, here to "sode." It also appeared in the third line of the preceding poem.
Second line, "sode wa mayuinu": "my sleeves have frayed." "Mayui" is a verb meaning that the weave of cloth shifts and frays, and "nu" is an auxiliary of completion. The poem breaks after this second line.
Third line, "wagimoko ga": "of my dear girl." "Wagimoko" is an affectionate term for a lover or wife.
Fourth line, "ie no atari o": "toward the place where her house stands." Unable to see her, he waves toward the vicinity of her house, and therein lies the sorrow of separation.
Fifth line, "yamazu furishi ni": "because I waved them without ceasing." "Shi" is the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki," and "ni" gives a reason; the cause of the fraying is placed last in an inverted order.
Source: Manyoshu
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