Yūzutsumi Shiratsukiyama no sanakazura nochi mo kanarazu awamu to zo omou

木綿包み白月山のさな葛
後もかならず逢はむとぞ思ふ

Roma-ji: Yūzutsumi Shiratsukiyama no sanakazura nochi mo kanarazu awamu to zo omou
English Translation: Like the trailing vine
on Mount Shiratsuki, white
as cloth-wrapped gifts,
even later, I am sure,
I mean to meet with you
Meaning: Like the trailing vine on Mount Shiratsuki, white as offerings wrapped in cloth, I am resolved to meet you later without fail.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3073

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
Like the trailing vine on Mount Shiratsuki that intertwines later, the poet resolves to meet the beloved without fail in time, closing the series on the vine. A variant gives the first line as "yūdatami," and another text gives the last two lines as "taemu to imo o waga omowanaku ni."
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, "yūzutsumi," something wrapped in white mulberry cloth, is a pillow word for "shira," white.
Line two, "Shiratsukiyama no," means "of Mount Shiratsuki," whose location is unknown.
Line three, "sanakazura," the trailing vine, and the lines up to here form an introduction leading, through vines that intertwine later, to "nochi," later. It continues the vine of poems 3070 and 3071 in this book.
Line four, "nochi mo kanarazu," means "later, without fail."
Line five, "awamu to zo omou," means "I mean to meet you," the same final line as poem 3064 in this book.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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