Mizu kukuru tama ni majireru isogai no katakoi nomi ni toshi wa henitsutsu

水くくる玉に交じれる磯貝の
片恋ひのみに年は経につつ

Roma-ji: Mizu kukuru tama ni majireru isogai no katakoi nomi ni toshi wa henitsutsu
English Translation: Amid the jewel-stones
washed in the water, sea-shells
lie upon the shore;
so in love that's only one-sided
the years keep on passing by
Meaning: Like a lone shell mingled among the jewel-stones washed by the water, I love only one-sidedly, and the years go on passing.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2796

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
As the shore shell mingled among stones polished by the water has only one half, so the speaker spends the years in one-sided love: so the poem laments. The sorrow of an unrequited love that drags on and on is entrusted to the image of a shell among the waves.
In the sequence on shells, "toshi wa henu tomo" at the end of the preceding poem and "toshi wa henitsutsu" at the end of this one share the same phrase. Where the preceding poem vowed not to forget over the years, this poem grieves that the years pass in one-sided love, so that through the same words "toshi wa he" a vow and a lament form a pair.
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, "mizu kukuru": "passing through the water," describing stones washed by waves. The first three lines form a preface leading to "katakoi" (one-sided love).
Second line, "tama ni majireru": "mingled among the jewel-stones." "Tama" here means beautiful pebbles polished by the water, and "ru" is the attributive of the continuative "ri."
Third line, "isogai no": "like the shore shell." As a shell with only one valve, it leads to "katakoi."
Fourth line, "katakoi nomi ni": "in nothing but one-sided love." The particle "nomi" stresses that there is nothing but unrequited love.
Fifth line, "toshi wa henitsutsu": "the years keep passing." "Ni" is the continuative of the perfective "nu," and "tsutsu" expresses continuation; the poem breaks off here, leaving a lingering grief for years spent in one-sided love. It shares the phrase with "toshi wa henu tomo" at the end of the preceding poem.
Source: Manyoshu
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