Kusamakura tabi no marune no himo taeba aga te to tsukero kore no harumoshi

草枕旅の丸寝の紐絶えば
我が手と付けろこれの針持し

Roma-ji: Kusamakura tabi no marune no himo taeba aga te to tsukero kore no harumoshi
English Translation: On your grass-pillowed
journey sleeping in your clothes,
if your sash should break,
sew it on as with my hand,
taking this, the needle here
Meaning: If your sash should snap as you sleep in your clothes on your journey, sew it back on as though it were my hand, with this needle I give you.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4420

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."
If your sash snaps as you sleep in your clothes on the road, sew it on as with my hand, using this needle: the poem sings of a wife sending her husband off with a needle in his hand. It is the eighth poem from Musashi and is thought to be by the wife of Mononobe no Mane, author of the preceding poem. Entrusting him with a needle because she cannot sew for him herself, she shows a love that would stay close even when apart. Tsukero is an eastern imperative, and haru for hari is a dialect form.
The author, Kurahashibe no Otome, is recorded as a guard's wife and is thought to be the wife of Mononobe no Mane; nothing more is known of her.

The first line, "kusamakura," "grass pillow," is a pillow word for "journey."
The second line, "tabi no marune no," "sleeping in one's clothes on the road," is the same word as marune in the wife's poem four before.
The third line, "himo taeba," "if the sash should break," is a supposition.
The fourth line, "aga te to tsukero," "sew it on as if with my hand," entrusts him with a stand-in for her own hand.
The closing line, "kore no harumoshi," is inverted, ending by pointing to the needle she hands him: with this needle.
Author: Kurahashibe no Otome
Source: Manyoshu
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