Toyokuni no Kiku no takahama takadaka ni kimi matsu yora wa sayo fukenikeri

豊国の企救の高浜高々に
君待つ夜らはさ夜更けにけり

Roma-ji: Toyokuni no Kiku no takahama takadaka ni kimi matsu yora wa sayo fukenikeri
English Translation: Like the high beach
of Kiku in the land of Toyo,
on tiptoe high
I wait for you, my love,
and the night has grown so late
Meaning: Like the high beach of Kiku in Toyo, I wait for you on tiptoe, and the night has grown so late.
Commentary: Book Twelve Dialogue Poems 3220

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Dialogue Poems"
Leading from the name of the high beach at Kiku to "takadaka ni," on tiptoe, a woman sings that the night has grown late as she waits eagerly for her lover. Answering the preceding man's poem with the same opening line, it pairs a man thinking of his wife at sunset on the beach with a woman waiting late into the night. As the book's final poem, it closes with a love that waits into the night, answering the dawn parting of the opening poem, 2841.
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, "Toyokuni no," is the same opening as the preceding poem, answering the man's poem.
Line two, "Kiku no takahama," means "the high beach at Kiku," and the lines up to here form an introduction leading through the repeated "taka" to "takadaka ni." It answers the "long beach" of the preceding poem with a "high beach."
Line three, "takadaka ni," describes waiting eagerly as if on tiptoe. In poem 2997 in this book a man imagines "imo ga matsuramu," his beloved waiting, and here the same figure is sung from the woman's side.
Line four, "kimi matsu yora wa," means "the nights I wait for you," with "ra" a suffix.
Line five, "sayo fukenikeri," means "the night has grown late." Whereas the opening poem, 2841, sings of a dawn parting, this final poem sings of a love that waits into the night, closing the book's day of love from morning to night.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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