Omoiyaru tadoki mo ware wa ima wa nashi imo ni awazute toshi no henureba

思ひ遣るたどきも我れは今はなし
妹に逢はずて年の経ぬれば

Roma-ji: Omoiyaru tadoki mo ware wa ima wa nashi imo ni awazute toshi no henureba
English Translation: To ease my longing
I have no means at all,
none left to me now,
for without meeting my love
the years have slipped away
Meaning: I have no way left to ease my longing, for the years have gone by without my meeting her.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts Directly 2941

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts Directly"
The poet laments having no means left to ease the longing as years pass without meeting. Poems of this same pattern recur in this book, and within them the unit of time lengthens from months to years.
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, "omoiyaru," means "to ease one's feelings," the same opening as poem 2892 in this book.
Line two, "tadoki mo ware wa," means "any means, for me."
Line three, "ima wa nashi," means "there is none now," the same as line three of poem 2881, and the poem pauses here.
Line four, "imo ni awazute," means "without meeting her," the same as line four of 2881.
Line five, "toshi no henureba," means "since the years have passed." Where 2881 and 2892 had "months," here it is "years," and the span of time has grown.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Nakanaka ni shinaba yasukemu izuru hi no iru waki shiranu ware shi kurushi mo
Next Poem: Waga seko ni kou to ni shi arashi midoriko no yonaki o shitsutsu inekatenaku wa