Hitori nuru yo o kazoemu to omoedomo koi no shigeki ni kokorodo mo nashi

ひとり寝る夜を数へむと思へども
恋の繁きに心どもなし

Roma-ji: Hitori nuru yo o kazoemu to omoedomo koi no shigeki ni kokorodo mo nashi
English Translation: The nights I sleep alone—
I would number them, I think,
and yet my longing
crowds so thick upon me
that I have no heart for it
Meaning: I think to count the nights I sleep alone, but my longing is so dense that I have lost all steadiness of heart.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems 3275

Headnote: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to the chōka (3274). She would count the nights of sleeping alone, but longing mounts and her steadiness of heart is lost. The chōka sings of going out to the gate to grieve in the morning, coming in to yearn at evening, and sleeping alone with her sleeve folded back on nights too many to count. The envoy takes up the chōka’s close, “could I even count them?”, showing a heart too disordered even to count. The latter half of the elegy 3329 in this book shares almost the same wording as this chōka.
The poet is unknown. Book Thirteen is built mainly of anonymous chōka and their envoys, and many of its poems preserve the air of old songs and ritual verse.

The first line, “hitori nuru,” means “sleeping alone,” marking nights without the beloved.
The second line, “yo o kazoemu to,” means “thinking to count the nights,” with “mu” expressing intention; it takes up the chōka’s “could I count the nights I sleep?”
The third line, “omoedomo,” means “though I think,” the concessive showing the gap between wish and reality.
In the fourth line, “shigeki” means dense and incessant, describing longing that keeps welling up.
In the closing line, “kokorodo” means firmness of heart; with “mo nashi” she laments that even that is gone.
Source: Manyoshu
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