Michi no he no kusa o fuyuno ni fumikarashi ware tachimatsu to imo ni tsuge koso

道の辺の草を冬野に踏み枯らし
我れ立ち待つと妹に告げこそ

Roma-ji: Michi no he no kusa o fuyuno ni fumikarashi ware tachimatsu to imo ni tsuge koso
English Translation: By the roadside here
the grass I trample down
like a winter moor;
tell my love that I stand
waiting for her all the while
Meaning: Tell my beloved that I stand waiting, having trampled the roadside grass until it lies withered like a winter moor.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2776

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Tell my beloved that I stand waiting here, having trampled the roadside grass until it looks like a withered winter moor: so the speaker asks someone. The figure of a man pacing back and forth until the grass is crushed and withered vividly conveys the ache of love.
It is a poem on roadside grass. Through the concrete image of thick grass trampled until it withers like a winter field, it makes visible both the length of the wait and the strength of feeling. Like poem 2770 in this book it begins with "michi no he no," but here it is the man himself waiting by the road who is depicted.
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, "michi no he no": "beside the road," indicating where the waiting man stands.
Second line, "kusa o fuyuno ni": "the grass, into a winter moor." "Fuyuno ni" expresses the result, until it looks like a withered winter field.
Third line, "fumikarashi": "trampling it to withering," showing a wait so long that his coming and going has crushed the grass.
Fourth line, "ware tachimatsu to": "that I stand waiting." "To" marks the content of the message, which is stated in full here.
Fifth line, "imo ni tsuge koso": "please tell my beloved." "Imo" is a man's affectionate word for his lover or wife, and "koso" is a particle expressing a wish addressed to another.
Source: Manyoshu
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