Hashikiyashi awanu kimi yue itazura ni kono kawa no se ni tamamo nurashitsu

はしきやし逢はぬ君ゆゑいたづらに
この川の瀬に玉裳濡らしつ

Roma-ji: Hashikiyashi awanu kimi yue itazura ni kono kawa no se ni tamamo nurashitsu
English Translation: Ah, how dear you are,
yet for you who will not meet,
all to no avail
here within this river's shoals
I have let my skirt be soaked
Meaning: Ah, dear as you are, for you who will not meet me, I have soaked my fine skirt in vain in the shallows of this river.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2705

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
This is a woman's lament that, for a man who would not meet her, she crossed the river's shallows and soaked the hem of her skirt in vain. Her mingled tenderness and resentment are expressed through the concrete image of the wet skirt.
Expressing feelings through the river's shallows, the poem makes the woman's attempt to cross the river and go to her man a symbol of unrequited love. While the surrounding poems use the flow of river water as a preface, this poem is distinctive in singing of the actual act of crossing the river.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not been handed down.

First line, "hashikiyashi": an exclamation meaning "ah, how dear." It begins by voicing, with a sigh, her love for the one who will not meet her.
Second line, "awanu kimi yue": "for you who will not meet me." "Yue" indicates cause, carrying the resentment of not being able to meet the one she loves.
Third line, "itazura ni": "in vain, to no purpose," expressing that the hardship of crossing the river went unrewarded.
Fourth line, "kono kawa no se ni": "in the shallows of this river." By saying "this," she points to the very river before her eyes.
Fifth line, "tamamo nurashitsu": "I have soaked my fine skirt." "Tama" is an honorific, and the perfective auxiliary "tsu" conveys a grief that cannot be undone.
Source: Manyoshu
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