Wagimoko ni koitsutsu arazu wa karikomo no omoi midarete shinu beki mono o

我妹子に恋つつあらずは刈り薦の
思ひ乱れて死ぬべきものを

Roma-ji: Wagimoko ni koitsutsu arazu wa karikomo no omoi midarete shinu beki mono o
English Translation: Rather than live on
longing for my beloved,
like the rushes cut
my thoughts tangled and strewn,
I ought rather just to die
Meaning: Rather than go on longing for my beloved, I would do better to die, my thoughts tangled like cut rushes.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2765

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Rather than suffer on in longing for the one he loves, the speaker laments, it would be better to die with his thoughts in disarray. A heart unable to bear the pain of unrequited love pours itself out frankly in extreme words.
It shares its last three lines with the preceding poem, 2764; where that poem keeps life alive for the beloved, this one says death would be better than continued longing. The same lower verse comes to express opposite feelings depending on the upper verse, and read side by side the two show how love sways the heart. The form that wishes for death "rather than go on longing" also appears in Book Two, poem 86, by Empress Iwanohime, "rather than longing so, I would lie pillowed on the rocks of a high mountain and die," and is a pattern common to love poems of the Man'yoshu.
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, "wagimoko ni": "for my dear beloved." "Wagimoko" is a man's affectionate word for his lover or wife, naming the object of his love first.
Second line, "koitsutsu arazu wa": "rather than go on longing." "Tsutsu" marks continuation, and "zu wa," the negative "zu" with "wa," pushes aside an undesirable state: rather than remain like this.
Third line, "karikomo no": a pillow word attaching to "midaru," since cut rushes scatter easily. Identical to the preceding poem, it overlays the rushes on the troubled heart.
Fourth line, "omoi midarete": "my thoughts in disarray," depicting a heart torn in a thousand directions by love.
Fifth line, "shinu beki mono o": "I would do better to die." "Beshi" expresses what is fitting, and "mono o" an exclamatory concession, ending with a strong cry of a love painful enough to wish for death.
Source: Manyoshu
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