Kimi ni koi inenu asake ni ta ga noreru uma no a no oto zo ware ni kikasuru

君に恋ひ寐ねぬ朝明に誰が乗れる
馬の足の音ぞ我れに聞かする

Roma-ji: Kimi ni koi inenu asake ni ta ga noreru uma no a no oto zo ware ni kikasuru
English Translation: Longing for you so,
at dawn after a sleepless night,
whose can it be,
the sound of a horse's hooves
that is made to reach my ears
Meaning: At dawn, after lying sleepless for love of you, whose horse can it be, whose hoofbeats I am made to hear?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2654

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
At dawn after a night without sleep for love, the speaker asks whose horse it is whose hoofbeats she must hear: this poem gives voice to a woman troubled by hoofbeats that are not her lover's. It conveys the disappointment and resentment of hearing, at the end of a night spent waiting, a sound that was not his.
Following the preceding poem, this is another poem on hoofbeats. Where the preceding poem goes out hoping it is the lover, this one tells of the letdown on learning it is not, so the two poems form a pair of hope and disappointment.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "kimi ni koi": "longing for you," giving the reason she could not sleep.
Second line, "inenu asake ni": "at dawn after I did not sleep." "I" means sleep and "asake" the break of day.
Third line, "ta ga noreru": "ridden by whom?" The question "ta," "who," carries resentment toward someone who is not the lover.
Fourth line, "uma no a no oto zo": "the sound of a horse's hooves," with "a" for "foot"; the line has eight syllables, and the binding particle "zo" anticipates the attributive ending of the last line.
Fifth line, "ware ni kikasuru": "that it makes me hear." The causative "su" in its attributive form "suru" answers the "zo" of the fourth line.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Uma no oto no todo to mo sureba matsukage ni idete zo mitsuru kedashi kimi ka to
Next Poem: Kurenai no susobiku michi o naka ni okite ware wa kayowamu kimi ka kimasamu