Tawakoto ka hito no iitsuru tama no o no nagaku to kimi wa iiteshi mono o

たはことか人の言ひつる玉の緒の
長くと君は言ひてしものを

Roma-ji: Tawakoto ka hito no iitsuru tama no o no nagaku to kimi wa iiteshi mono o
English Translation: Can it be nonsense
that they spoke to me today?
Like a jewel cord,
“long,” you told me, “long,” my love—
you said it, did you not?
Meaning: Was it nonsense, what they told me? For you yourself said your life would be long, like a cord of jewels.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Elegies 3334

Headnote: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to the chōka (3333). Doubting the news of her husband’s death as nonsense, she recalls his words that he would live long. The chōka is a wife’s elegy: her husband set sail from the port of Mitsu at Naniwa at the sovereign’s command, and she waited for his return, divining and keeping herself pure, only to be told that he had scattered like the yellow leaves on the mountains of Tsukushi. The envoy sets the chōka’s “is it nonsense that they told me?” at its head, repeating her refusal to believe.
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.

In the first line, “tawakoto” means nonsense or raving, and the particle “ka” governs the second line.
The second line, “hito no iitsuru,” means “did someone say,” with the perfective “tsu” in the attributive “tsuru” in kakari-musubi with “ka.” Taking up the same line of the chōka, the poem breaks here.
The third line, “tama no o no,” is the cord threading jewels, a figure for life, working as a pillow word that leads to “nagaku” (long).
The fourth line, “nagaku to kimi wa,” means “that it would be long, you…,” quoting her husband’s words in life.
In the closing line, “mono o” is a concessive sigh: “though you said so,” lamenting a promise betrayed.
Source: Manyoshu
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