可良許呂毛　須蘇乃宇知可倍　安波祢杼毛　家思吉己許呂乎　安我毛波奈久尓

からころも　すそのうちかへ　あはねども　けしきこころを　あがもはなくに

karakoromo suso no utikape apanedomo kesiki kokoro o a ga mopanaku ni

A Cathay robe’s Seamed hems cross, but Do not meet together, yet To have a faithless heart I’ll not think, at all…[1]

Anonymous

In a certain book, this poem is:

 可良己呂母　須素能宇知可比　阿波奈敝婆　祢奈敝乃可良尓　許等多可利都母

からころも　すそのうちかひ　あはなへば　ねなへのからに　ことたかりつも

karakoromo suso no utikapi apanapeba nenape no kara ni kototakaritu mo

A Cathay robe’s Seamed hems crossing, but Not meeting— We sleep not together, yet How painful the rumours are…

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[1] This poem relies for its impact on a knowledge of continental clothing designs. Unlike in contemporaneous Japanese garments which were all the same length, continental ones (karakoromo 唐衣 – note that this has been translated as ‘Cathay robe’ for consistency, but the kara element is probably more likely to refer to Kudara 百済, the Korean kingdom of Baekje, in this context) featured multiple robes of differing lengths and thus the hems of these would not align. The use of au 合ふ (‘meet/come together [of objects]’) simultaneously evokes the homophonous au 逢ふ (‘meet [romantically’] and awaseme 合目 (‘seam’).