Masokagami mimase waga seko waga katami materamu toki ni awazarame ya mo

まそ鏡見ませ我が背子我が形見
待てらむ時に逢はざらめやも

Roma-ji: Masokagami mimase waga seko waga katami materamu toki ni awazarame ya mo
English Translation: Gaze into this mirror,
look into it, my dear lord;
my keepsake to you,
while you hold it in your hands,
how could we not be meeting
Meaning: Look into this mirror, my love; while you hold my keepsake, how could we not be together?
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 2978

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
A woman gives a mirror to her lover as a keepsake and tells him that whenever he looks into it, it will be as if he were meeting her. Mirrors were thought to hold their owner's spirit and were given as keepsakes. From here a series of poems about mirrors follows.
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, "masokagami," a clear, fine mirror, is a pillow word for "miru," to see, and also refers to the actual mirror given as a keepsake.
Line two, "mimase waga seko," means "please look, my love," with "mase" an honorific imperative. The poem pauses here.
Line three, "waga katami," means "my keepsake."
Line four, "materamu toki ni," read "materamu" in the kana line, is taken to mean "while you hold it," though interpretations vary.
Line five, "awazarame ya mo," is a rhetorical question, "how could we not meet?", assuring him that to look into the mirror is to meet her.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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