Asajihara ono ni shime yū munakoto mo awamu to kikose koi no nagusa ni

浅茅原小野に標結ふ空言も
逢はむと聞こせ恋のなぐさに

Roma-ji: Asajihara ono ni shime yū munakoto mo awamu to kikose koi no nagusa ni
English Translation: Like tying a marker
on a moor of low reeds,
even empty words,
tell me, "Let us meet,"
to comfort my longing heart
Meaning: Even if it is an empty word, like tying a marker on a moor of low reeds, tell me "Let us meet," to comfort my longing.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3063

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
The poet asks the beloved to say "Let us meet," even if it is an empty word, as a comfort for this longing. The variant in the left note gives the last two lines as "komu to shiraseshi kimi o shi matamu," and the note adds that the poem also appears in the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection with a slightly different final line.
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, "asajihara," is a moor of low reeds. Poem 3057 in this book opens with the same line.
Line two, "ono ni shime yū," means "tying a marker on the moor" to claim it, and the lines up to here form an introduction leading, through emptiness, to "munakoto," empty words.
Line three, "munakoto mo," means "even empty words," read "munakoto" in the kana line.
Line four, "awamu to kikose," means "please say 'let us meet,'" "kikosu" being an honorific for "iu," to say.
Line five, "koi no nagusa ni," means "as a comfort for my longing."
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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