Tamahoko no michiyukitsukare inamushiro shikite mo kimi o mimu yoshi mo ga mo

玉桙の道行き疲れ稲席
しきても君を見むよしもがも

Roma-ji: Tamahoko no michiyukitsukare inamushiro shikite mo kimi o mimu yoshi mo ga mo
English Translation: Jeweled-spear roadway,
weary from walking on it,
the rice-straw mat I spread:
spread out again and again,
O that I had means to see you
Meaning: As a traveler weary of the road spreads out a rice-straw mat, so again and again I wish I had some way to see you.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2643

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
From a preface in which a traveler, weary of the road, spreads a rice-straw mat to rest, a woman wishes she had some way to see her beloved again and again. Using the homely scene of resting on a journey as a preface, the poem expresses her earnest longing to meet him often.
This poem speaks through the rice-straw mat. The first three lines form a preface in which spreading (shiku) the mat leads into the homophone "shiku" meaning "repeatedly," and this play on sound is the heart of its technique. It speaks through a homely object of the road, and together with the bridge of Itada in the next poem, poems on objects of the road and the path to the beloved follow one another.
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, "tamahoko no": a pillow word attached to "road." "Tamahoko" is thought to mean a fine spear, though why it attaches to "road" is not clear.
Second line, "michiyukitsukare": "wearied by walking the road," depicting one exhausted on a journey.
Third line, "inamushiro": "a rice-straw mat," a mat woven of rice straw on which a weary traveler spreads out to rest. The preface runs from the first line to here.
Fourth line, "shikite mo kimi o": "repeatedly, you." "Shiki" is a pivot word meaning both "spreading" the mat and "repeatedly," linking the preface to the poem's main thought.
Fifth line, "mimu yoshi mo ga mo": "O that I had a way to see you." "Yoshi" means a means or method, and "moga mo" is a final particle of wishing, closing the poem with a longing for meetings that cannot be.
Source: Manyoshu
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