Awamu hi no katami ni seyo to tawayame no omoimidarete nueru koromo zo

逢はむ日の形見にせよとたわや女の
思ひ乱れて縫へる衣ぞ

Roma-ji: Awamu hi no katami ni seyo to tawayame no omoimidarete nueru koromo zo
English Translation: Keep it as a token
until the day we meet,
so I, a frail woman,
sewed this robe for you
with my thoughts in disarray
Meaning: This is the robe I, a frail woman, sewed for you with my thoughts in turmoil, so that you might keep it as a token until the day we meet.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Exchange Poems of Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome 3753

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome"
She composed this as she sent the robe: it is the robe she sewed, her thoughts in turmoil, to be kept as a token until the day they meet. Into the robe finished stitch by stitch with a troubled heart she entrusts all her feelings. Yakamori's 3733, "wagimoko ga katami no koromo nakariseba," sings of living through the days of exile supported by this keepsake robe, so the two poems answer each other as giver and receiver. The young woman's nine poems close with this one.
The author, Sano no Otogami no Otome, was a lady-in-waiting of low rank known as a nyoju, serving in the palace storehouse office; she is also written Sano no Chigami no Otome.
A left note reads "the above nine poems are by the young woman"; the nine poems from 3745 to 3753 of this book were sent by the young woman in answer to Yakamori's poems. The latter half of this book contains sixty-three poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome. According to the book's table of contents, when Yakamori took as his wife the young woman, a lady-in-waiting of the palace storehouse office, he was exiled to Echizen Province by imperial decree. The place of exile is thought to be Ajimano in Echizen, near present-day Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture.

First line, "awamu hi no": of the day we shall meet again.
Second line, "katami ni seyo to": a "katami" is a keepsake recalling someone far away: make it your keepsake.
Third line, "tawayame no": "tawayame" is a gentle, frail woman, referring to the young woman herself.
Fourth line, "omoimidarete": with thoughts in disarray, the heart troubled by the grief of parting.
Fifth line, "nueru koromo zo": "ru" is the attributive of the continuative "ri," and "zo" a final particle of firm assertion: this is the robe I sewed, the poem ends.
Author: Sano no Otogami no Otome
Source: Manyoshu
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