Waga seko ga komu to katarishi yo wa suginu shie ya sarasara shikori kome ya mo

我が背子が来むと語りし夜は過ぎぬ
しゑやさらさらしこり来めやも

Roma-ji: Waga seko ga komu to katarishi yo wa suginu shie ya sarasara shikori kome ya mo
English Translation: The night my husband
promised he would come
has passed me by;
oh, what's the use, would he now
come again, once more, to me
Meaning: The night my husband promised he would come has gone by. Oh, what's the use; would he ever come again now?
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts Directly 2870

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts Directly"
A woman resentfully gives up on a man who failed to come on the promised night, sure that he will not come now. The exclamation "shie ya" conveys the weariness of disappointed hope.
The poet is unknown. Book Twelve, titled the second part of "Love Poems Exchanged Old and New," gathers love poems by people whose names have not come down to us, arranged by category.

Line one, "waga seko ga," is a woman's word for the man she loves.
Line two, "komu to katarishi," means "he said he would come."
Line three, "yo wa suginu," means "that night has passed," and the poem pauses after this line.
Line four, "shie ya sarasara": "shie ya" is an exclamation of weary resignation, and "sarasara" means "now, after all this."
Line five, "shikori kome ya mo": "shikori" is taken to mean "again, repeatedly," and "me ya mo" is a rhetorical question, "would he come again? Surely not," charged with resentment.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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