Niimuro no kodoki ni itareba hadasusuki ho ni deshi kimi ga mienu kono koro

新室のこどきに至ればはだすすき
穂に出し君が見えぬこのころ

Roma-ji: Niimuro no kodoki ni itareba hadasusuki ho ni deshi kimi ga mienu kono koro
English Translation: The new-built chamber—
when the time of silkworms comes,
like pampas grass
whose plumes came out, you showed your love,
yet these days you are not seen.
Meaning: Now that the season of the new rearing room has come, you who showed your love as plain as pampas plumes are nowhere to be seen these days.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3506

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
When the busy season of rearing silkworms in the new room arrives, a woman laments, the lover who once showed his feelings so plainly no longer appears. The farming calendar and the changing course of love are laid together.
It is one of the love exchanges. "Kodoki" is variously read as the season of silkworm rearing or the time of celebrating a new house, without a settled view.
The poet is unknown. The Azuma uta are thought to have been sung among the people of the eastern provinces, and they are marked by plain, open-hearted expression mixed with local dialect.

First line, "niimuro no": "Niimuro" is a newly built room, thought by some to be a silkworm room.
Second line, "kodoki ni itareba": "Kodoki" is thought to be the silkworm season; the line is hypermetric with six syllables.
Third line, "hadasusuki": Pampas grass, a pillow word for "ho ni deru," to come into plume.
Fourth line, "ho ni deshi kimi ga": "Ho ni de" is to show one's love openly, overlaid with the pampas grass coming into plume.
Final line, "mienu kono koro": "Not seen these days," ending on a noun.
Source: Manyoshu
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