Kimi wa kozu ware wa yue nami tatsu nami no shikushiku wabishi kakute koji to ya

君は来ず我れは故なみ立つ波の
しくしくわびしかくて来じとや

Roma-ji: Kimi wa kozu ware wa yue nami tatsu nami no shikushiku wabishi kakute koji to ya
English Translation: You do not come,
and I have no reason to go;
like the rising waves,
again and again I am forlorn;
will you never come like this
Meaning: You do not come, and I have no excuse to go to you; like waves rising again and again, I am lonely without end. Do you mean never to come?
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3026

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
A woman laments that her lover does not come, she has no pretext to visit him, and loneliness surges again and again like waves. The final question, "do you mean never to come?", carries both resentment and anxiety.
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, "kimi wa kozu," means "you do not come," and the poem pauses after this first line.
Line two, "ware wa yue nami," means "and I have no reason to go."
Line three, "tatsu nami no," means "like rising waves coming again and again," leading to "shikushiku."
Line four, "shikushiku wabishi," means "again and again I am forlorn," and the poem pauses here.
Line five, "kakute koji to ya," means "do you mean not to come?", carrying resentment and anxiety.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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