Mayone kaki hanahi himo toke materi ya mo itsu ka mo mimu to koikoshi ware o

眉根掻き鼻ひ紐解け待てりやも
いつかも見むと恋ひ来し我れを

Roma-ji: Mayone kaki hanahi himo toke materi ya mo itsu ka mo mimu to koikoshi ware o
English Translation: Scratching your eyebrows,
sneezing, your sash come undone,
did you wait for me,
wondering when I would see you,
me, who came here full of longing?
Meaning: Did you wait for me, your brows itching, sneezing, your sash coming undone of itself—for me, who came here longing, wondering when I would ever see you?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2808

Headnote: "Questions and Answers"
Listing the omens believed to foretell a meeting with one's beloved, itching eyebrows, sneezing, and an undergarment cord coming loose of itself, a man who has come calling asks the woman whether she sensed these signs and waited for him. The buoyant heart of a man who came wanting only to see her comes through.
The headnote "Questions and Answers" names a category that pairs poems posing a question with poems replying to them, and the question-and-answer poems in the latter part of this book begin with this poem. As the left note "the two poems above" indicates, it forms a pair with the next poem, in which the woman replies that it was precisely because he was coming today that she sneezed and her eyebrows itched.
The left note says, "The above appears earlier among the poems of Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro; but because it forms a question and answer, it is recorded here again," showing that a poem found in poem 2408 as a poem of the Hitomaro Collection was included once more to complete a question-and-answer pair. It differs from poem 2408, whose third line reads "matsuramu ka" and whose fifth reads "omoeru ware o," and here the form of a question addressed to the other person is clearer.
The author is unknown; according to the left note, the poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection. That collection is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he recorded. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jito and Emperor Monmu, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "mayone kaki": "scratching your eyebrows." Itching eyebrows were believed to foretell a meeting with one's beloved.
Second line, "hanahi himo toke": "sneezing, your cord come loose." "Hanau" means to sneeze and "himo toku" refers to an undergarment cord coming undone of itself; both were taken as signs that one was being thought of or would meet a lover. From the first line, three omens are piled one upon another.
Third line, "materi ya mo": "were you waiting?" "Ri" is the auxiliary of continuing state and "ya mo" marks a question; a pause falls after the third line, turning the poem into a question to the other person.
Fourth line, "itsu ka mo mimu to": "wondering when I would see you." "Miru" means to meet, and the particle "ka" with "mo" added conveys a longing for the day of meeting.
Fifth line, "koikoshi ware o": "me, who came longing." "Shi" is the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki," and in inverted order the line supplies the object of "materi ya mo" in the third line.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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