Tokimori no uchinasu tsuzumi yomi mireba toki ni wa narinu awanaku mo ayashi

時守の打ち鳴す鼓数みみれば
時にはなりぬ逢はなくもあやし

Roma-ji: Tokimori no uchinasu tsuzumi yomi mireba toki ni wa narinu awanaku mo ayashi
English Translation: When the timekeeper
beats upon the drum, I count,
and as I count them,
the hour has come at last:
strange that still we do not meet
Meaning: Counting the strokes of the drum the timekeeper beats, I find the hour has come; how strange that we still do not meet.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2641

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Counting the strokes of the drum beaten by the timekeeper, the woman finds that the appointed hour has come, yet her lover has still not arrived, and she wonders at it: a poem of waiting for one who does not come. In the gesture of counting each beat of the drum that tells the hour, the tension of awaiting the promised time and the unease as time slips by are vividly expressed.
This poem speaks through the drum that tells the time. The Nihon Shoki records that in the tenth year of Emperor Tenji (671) a water clock was placed on a new platform and bells and drums were struck to announce the hours, and this poem is a love poem on what was then a new subject, set against the timekeeping system of the capital.
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, "tokimori no": "the timekeeper's," "tokimori" being the official who tended the water clock and announced the hours.
Second line, "uchinasu tsuzumi": "the drum he strikes," the drum beaten to announce the time.
Third line, "yomi mireba": "when I count them." "Yomu" means to count, and the realis form with "ba" makes a definite condition.
Fourth line, "toki ni wa narinu": "the hour has come," the appointed time having arrived, stated with the perfective "nu"; the poem breaks here.
Fifth line, "awanaku mo ayashi": "strange that we do not meet." "Naku" is the nominalized form of the negative "zu," expressing her puzzlement that he has not come though the hour is here. The line is hypermetric.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Azusayumi hikimi yuruemi kozu wa kozu koba ko so o nazo kozu wa koba so o
Next Poem: Tomoshibi no kage ni kagayou utsusemi no imo ga emaishi omokage ni miyu