Asajihara karishime sashite munakoto mo yosorishi kimi ga koto o shi matamu

浅茅原刈り標さして空言も
寄そりし君が言をし待たむ

Roma-ji: Asajihara karishime sashite munakoto mo yosorishi kimi ga koto o shi matamu
English Translation: On a field of reeds
where marking ropes have been set,
though the talk was false,
it joined me to you, and so
I shall wait for word from you
Meaning: Like the marking ropes staked out on a field of sparse reeds, an empty rumor linked me to you; and so I will wait for words that come from you yourself.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2755

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
This is a woman's love poem saying that since you have been linked to me in people's talk, even if the rumor was groundless, I will wait for the words that come from your own lips. Wavering in a relationship where rumor runs ahead, she resolves to keep waiting for her lover's true word.
It is a poem "Expressing Feelings through Things" that speaks through a marker staked in a field of reeds. Poem 2759 later in this book also ends "kimi o shi matamu," sharing with this poem's "koto o shi matamu" a closing line in which a woman resolves to wait.
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, "asajihara": a field covered with low cogon grass, a barren meadow that yields little even when cut.
Second line, "karishime sashite": "cutting the grass and setting up a marker of possession." The first two lines form an introductory phrase that is said to lead to "munakoto" in the third line, since staking out a barren reed field is a claim that bears no fruit.
Third line, "munakoto mo": "even empty words." The particle "mo" conveys the sense of "even if it was only empty talk."
Fourth line, "yosorishi kimi ga": "of you, who were linked to me by rumor." "Shi" is the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki."
Fifth line, "koto o shi matamu": "I will wait for your words." "Shi" is an emphatic particle and "mu" an auxiliary of intention, firmly closing on the wish to wait for the lover's own words rather than rumor.
Source: Manyoshu
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