Nubatama no imo ga hosubeku aranaku ni waga koromode o nurete ika ni semu

ぬばたまの妹が干すべくあらなくに
我が衣手を濡れていかにせむ

Roma-ji: Nubatama no imo ga hosubeku aranaku ni waga koromode o nurete ika ni semu
English Translation: My love with her black hair
is not here to dry them,
and yet even so
my sleeves have been soaked;
what am I to do
Meaning: My black-haired wife is not here to dry them, yet I have let my sleeves get soaked; what am I to do?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3712

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Eighteen poems composed while anchored at Takashiki Bay, each expressing his feelings"
He laments: with no wife here to dry them, what shall he do with his sleeves so soaked? Following the preceding poems in which he wetted his sleeves gathering shells, he comes to think of the absence of the wife who would care for his wet clothes. It expresses the loneliness of having lost, on the journey, the presence of a wife who looks after daily needs.
According to the headnote, this is one of eighteen poems composed while anchored at Takashiki Bay, each expressing his feelings. Takashiki Bay lies within Asō Bay in Tsushima, thought to be present-day Takeshiki in Mitsushima, Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture. The last nine poems of the sequence have no left notes, and the author of this poem is not named.

First line, "nubatama no": usually a pillow word for "night" or "black," here a rare case in which, through the association with black hair, it modifies "imo" (my love).
Second line, "imo ga hosubeku": "beku" is the continuative of "beshi," expressing possibility: so that my wife might dry them.
Third line, "aranaku ni": "naku" is the nominalized negative and "ni" adversative: though it is not so.
Fourth line, "waga koromode o": "koromode" means sleeves, those soaked while gathering shells in the preceding poems.
Fifth line, "nurete ika ni semu": "mu" is conjecture: having soaked them, what shall I do, ending in helplessness. An eight-syllable hypermetric line.
Source: Manyoshu
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