classic waka stream

待ちかねて内には入らじ白栲の
我が衣手に露は置きぬとも
Roma-ji

Machikanete uchi ni wa iraji shirotae no waga koromode ni tsuyu wa okinu tomo

English Translation
Weary with waiting,
still I will not go inside,
though on my white sleeves,
white as cloth of mulberry,
the dew should come to settle
Meaning
Though I can hardly bear the waiting, I will not go back inside, even if the dew should settle on my white sleeves.
Commentary
Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2688

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Though she can hardly bear the waiting for her lover, a woman resolves not to go inside even if the night grows so late that dew settles on her sleeves, and she stays standing outside. It expresses a single-minded wish to go on waiting without minding the soaking dew.
This is part of the sequence on dew. Poem 2690 uses nearly the same words as the third to fifth lines here, "on my white sleeves the dew settles," and there it is a man who, soaked with dew, waits for a woman who will not meet him. The arrangement sets the waiting woman against the waiting man.
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, "machikanete": "unable to bear the waiting." "Kane" expresses failing to do what one tries, here showing a heart worn out by waiting.
Second line, "uchi ni wa iraji": "I will not go inside." "Ji" is the negative volitional auxiliary, and the poem pauses here; the remaining three lines are added by inversion.
Third line, "shirotae no": a pillow word attached to "sleeve." Shirotae is white cloth woven from paper-mulberry fibers, leading into words for robes and sleeves.
Fourth line, "waga koromode ni": "on my sleeves." Koromode means sleeve, set forth as the place the dew will wet.
Fifth line, "tsuyu wa okinu tomo": "even if the dew should settle." "Nu" is perfective and "tomo" concessive; by inversion they strengthen the resolve of the second line.
Source
Manyoshu
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