Waga inochi wa oshiku mo arazu sanitsurau kimi ni yorite zo nagaku horiseshi

我が命は惜しくもあらずさ丹つらふ
君によりてぞ長く欲りせし

Roma-ji: Waga inochi wa oshiku mo arazu sanitsurau kimi ni yorite zo nagaku horiseshi
English Translation: For this life of mine
I hold no regret at all;
it was for you, love,
with your cheeks of rosy glow,
that I wished it to be long.
Meaning: I do not grudge my own life at all; it was only for you, with your fresh and rosy face, that I wished it to be long.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Poems with Tales of Origin and Miscellaneous Poems 3813

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A certain text gives the envoy as follows:"
The maiden says her life itself means nothing to her; it was only for her beloved that she longed to live on. Facing death, she confesses that her clinging to life was wholly for his sake, a deeply moving poem.
This envoy is preserved in a different text from the preceding one. According to the left note, a maiden of the Kurumochi clan fell ill from longing when her husband stopped visiting for years; wasting day by day, she neared death. She sent a messenger to summon him, and sobbing, recited this poem and then breathed her last.
The poet is a maiden of the Kurumochi clan, a woman of legend whose personal name is not recorded. The Kurumochi clan is said to have been in charge of the emperor's palanquins.

First line, "waga inochi wa," means "my life." Hypermetric at six syllables, it opens with the weighty word "life."
Second line, "oshiku mo arazu," means "is no loss to me," and the poem pauses after the second line.
Third line, "sanitsurau," meaning "rosy and fair," is a pillow word for kimi. It is the same word that opens the chōka 3811, binding the chōka and envoy together.
Fourth line, "kimi ni yorite zo," means "for your sake alone." Zo forms a kakari-musubi with shi in the final line.
Final line, "nagaku horiseshi," means "I wished it to be long." It closes with the past attributive shi, answering "life" in the first line.
Author: A Maiden of the Kurumochi Clan
Source: Manyoshu
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