Tsurubami no kinu tokiarai Matsuchiyama motsu hito ni wa nao shikazukeri

橡の衣解き洗ひ真土山
本つ人にはなほしかずけり

Roma-ji: Tsurubami no kinu tokiarai Matsuchiyama motsu hito ni wa nao shikazukeri
English Translation: Like an acorn-gray robe
unpicked and washed and beaten,
Mount Matsuchi,
to the one I've loved of old
no other can compare
Meaning: Like an acorn-dyed robe unpicked, washed, and beaten again, so is Mount Matsuchi; and no one, after all, can match the one I have loved from the beginning.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3009

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
The poem sings that the one loved from long ago surpasses any new partner. The introduction leading from washing and beating a robe to Mount Matsuchi is elaborate, and is thought to overlay the idea of rediscovering one's first love, as one washes and wears an old robe again.
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, "tsurubami no," refers to a robe dyed with sawtooth oak acorns.
Line two, "kinu tokiarai," means "unpicking and washing the robe," and since washed cloth is beaten again ("mata utsu"), it leads to "Matsuchi."
Line three, "Matsuchiyama," is a mountain on the border of Yamato and Kii; the lines up to here are taken as an introduction leading to "moto," though how they connect is debated. The same mountain appears in poem 3154 in this book.
Line four, "motsu hito ni wa," means "to the one from the beginning, the one long familiar."
Line five, "nao shikazukeri," means "none can compare after all," saying that an old love surpasses a new one.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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