Tarachine no oya no kau ko no mayugomori ibuseku mo aru ka imo ni awazu shite - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

たらちねの親の飼ふ蚕の繭ごもり
いぶせくもあるか妹に逢はずして

Roma-ji: Tarachine no oya no kau ko no mayugomori ibuseku mo aru ka imo ni awazu shite
English Translation: Like the silkworms raised
by my parents, shut away
inside their cocoons,
how heavy and close my heart,
for I cannot meet my love.
Meaning: Like silkworms my parents raise, shut away in their cocoons, my heart is heavy and closed, for I cannot meet my love.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 895

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that, like silkworms raised by one's parents shut up in their cocoons, my heart is heavy and will not clear, for I cannot meet my love. It lays the stifled feeling of not meeting over the image of silkworms enclosed in cocoons. One can also sense a young love that cannot meet freely under the parents' watchful eyes.
The author, "Hitomaro", is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, a court poet of the Asuka period revered as the sage of poetry and the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, and one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. Many Man'yōshū poems are included in the Shūishū under Hitomaro's name.
A similar poem appears in Book Twelve of the Man'yōshū with the second line "haha ga kau ko no." The final line of the main text reads "imo ni awazu shite," which does not match "imo ni awazute" in the reading line; here the main text is followed.

First line, "tarachine no," is a pillow word modifying "oya," parent. The first and second lines of 897 in this book also read "tarachine no oya no," the two poems on parents answering each other.
Second line, "oya no kau ko no," means "of the silkworms the parents raise."
Third line, "mayugomori," means "shut up in the cocoon"; from the first line to here forms a preface leading to "ibuseku," heavy-hearted.
Fourth line, "ibuseku mo aru ka," means "how heavy and gloomy my heart," with "ka" expressing exclamation. It is a hypermetric line with one extra syllable. The poem breaks here.
Final line, "imo ni awazu shite," means "not meeting my love," inverted with the fourth line to give the reason the heart will not clear.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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