Asukagawa yuku se o hayami hayakemu to matsuramu imo o kono hi kurashitsu

明日香川行く瀬を早み早けむと
待つらむ妹をこの日暮らしつ

Roma-ji: Asukagawa yuku se o hayami hayakemu to matsuramu imo o kono hi kurashitsu
English Translation: Asuka River
flows so swiftly through its shoals:
"He'll be quick to come,"
so my darling waits, and yet
I have let this whole day pass
Meaning: Like the swift shoals of the Asuka River, my beloved must be waiting, thinking I will come soon, and yet I have let this whole day go by.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2713

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Through the swiftness of the Asuka River, a man regrets having passed the whole day without going to the woman who must be waiting for him, expecting him to come quickly. The poem expresses both his concern for the waiting woman and his self-reproach at failing to go.
Expressing feelings through the swiftness of the river's shoals, the poem leads from "hayami" (being swift) to "hayakemu" (will be quick) with the same sound. The Asuka River also appears in poems 2701 and 2702 of this book, and poems on the Asuka River recur within this sequence.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not been handed down.

First line, "asukagawa": the river flowing through Asuka in Yamato Province, the present-day Asuka River in Asuka Village, Nara Prefecture.
Second line, "yuku se o hayami": "since the flowing shoals are swift." The "o ... mi" pattern expresses a reason. The lines up to here form a preface, leading through the sound "hayami" to "hayakemu" in the third line.
Third line, "hayakemu to": "thinking he will be quick to come." The auxiliary "mu" imagines what is in the waiting woman's heart.
Fourth line, "matsuramu imo o": "my beloved who must be waiting, and yet." "Ramu" expresses conjecture about the present, picturing the woman waiting even now. "O" carries an adversative sense.
Fifth line, "kono hi kurashitsu": "I have let this day pass." The perfective auxiliary "tsu" expresses regret that the day has ended without his going.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Koto toku wa naka wa yodomase minashigawa tayu to iu koto o arikosu na yume
Next Poem: Mononofu no yaso ujigawa no hayaki se ni tachienu koi mo are wa suru kamo