Nubatama no waga kurokami o hikinurashi midarete sara ni koiwataru kamo

ぬばたまの我が黒髪を引きぬらし
乱れてさらに恋ひわたるかも

Roma-ji: Nubatama no waga kurokami o hikinurashi midarete sara ni koiwataru kamo
English Translation: Black as the jet-seeds,
this long black hair that is mine
I loose and let fall,
and in tangles, yet again
I go on in love's longing
Meaning: I let down my black hair and leave it hanging loose, and, tangled as it is, I go on longing for you all the more.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2610

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
Letting down her black hair, she finds her heart disordered as her hair, and goes on longing still: this is a love poem. Because it speaks of black hair, it is taken as a poem in a woman's voice, and the disorder of the hair is overlaid with the disorder of the heart to express an irrepressible love.
Where the preceding poems spoke of love through sleeves and robes, this one speaks of love's disorder through the figure of black hair. The next poem, 2611, tells of a cord coming untied, so poems in which love shows itself in what one wears and in one's own appearance continue.
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 things, night and hair, here to "kurokami." Nubatama is the seed of the blackberry lily, glossy and black.
Second line, "waga kurokami o": "my black hair." Lustrous black hair is a symbol of a woman's beauty.
Third line, "hikinurashi": "loosening it and letting it hang." "Nurasu" means to undo bound hair and let it fall, hinting at a heart with no composure left to tend her appearance.
Fourth line, "midarete sara ni": "in disorder, and still more." "Midare" overlays the tangling of the hair with the turmoil of the heart.
Fifth line, "koiwataru kamo": "how I go on longing." "Koiwataru" means to love on through a long time, and the final particle "kamo" closes the poem with a sigh at the depth of her feeling.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Shirotae no sode wa mayuinu wagimoko ga ie no atari o yamazu furishi ni
Next Poem: Ima sara ni kimi ga tamakura makinemeya waga himo no o no toketsutsu motona