Koromode ni arashi no fukite samuki yo o kimi kimasazu wa hitori kamo nemu

衣手にあらしの吹きて寒き夜を
君来まさずはひとりかも寝む

Roma-ji: Koromode ni arashi no fukite samuki yo o kimi kimasazu wa hitori kamo nemu
English Translation: Upon my sleeves
the mountain gale is blowing,
and on this cold night,
if you do not come to me,
must I sleep all alone?
Meaning: On this cold night with the mountain wind blowing against my sleeves, if you do not come, must I sleep alone?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems 3282

Headnote: "Envoy"
This envoy follows the chōka (3280) and its variant in a certain text (3281). On a cold night with the storm wind blowing at her sleeves, she wonders whether she must sleep alone if he does not come. The chōka tells of standing and waiting late into the night for a husband who never comes, until the snow on her sleeves froze, and wishes to meet him at least in dreams. The envoy condenses the cold and the loneliness of sleeping alone into one.
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, “koromode ni,” means “on my sleeves,” showing the cold reaching the waiting woman directly.
In the second line, “arashi” is the fierce wind blowing down from the mountains, written in the original with the characters “mountain” and “below”; it takes up the chōka’s “as the storm wind blows.”
The third line, “samuki yo o,” means “this cold night,” the particle “o” marking the night to be passed.
In the fourth line, “zu wa” is a negative conditional: “if you do not come,” with “kimasu” an honorific.
In the closing line, “ka” is interrogative and “mo” adds a sigh, with the closing “mu” in the attributive in kakari-musubi, foreseeing the loneliness of sleeping alone.
Source: Manyoshu
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