Naniwaji o yukite ku made to wagimoko ga tsukeshi himo ga o taenikeru kamo

難波道を行きて来までと我妹子が
付けし紐が緒絶えにけるかも

Roma-ji: Naniwaji o yukite ku made to wagimoko ga tsukeshi himo ga o taenikeru kamo
English Translation: "Till you've gone the road
to Naniwa and come back,"
my dear wife said,
and the cord of the sash she tied
has now broken, worn right through
Meaning: My wife sewed this sash on so it would last until I went down the road to Naniwa and came back, and now its cord has snapped.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4404

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
The cord of the sash my wife sewed on to last until I went to Naniwa and back has snapped: the poem sings of the length of the road and love for his wife. According to the left note, Kamitsukeno no Suruga, senior clerk and escort officer of Kōzuke Province, presented twelve poems on the twenty-third day of the second month, and the clumsy ones were left out. This is the first. In the breaking of the sash his wife tied, he senses both the length of the journey and a fear that their promise might be harmed.
The author, Kamitsukeno no Ushikai, is recorded as an assistant guard from Kōzuke; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "Naniwaji o," "the road to Naniwa," shows the way to the guards' gathering place.
The second line, "yukite ku made to," "until you go and come back," quotes his wife's words.
The third line, "wagimoko ga," is an affectionate name for his wife.
The fourth line, "tsukeshi himo ga o," "the cord of the sash she tied," refers to the sash knotted at parting. The next poem also sings of a sash tied by a wife, and the two stand side by side.
The closing line, "taenikeru kamo," "it has broken," ends in the exclamatory kamo.
Author: Kamitsukeno no Ushikai
Source: Manyoshu
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