Naki hito no sumori ni dani mo narubeki o ima wa to kaeru kyō no kanashisa

English Translation

You might at the least
have stayed as the egg that stays
unhatched in the nest
of one now dead — and today
you say it is over, and go

Meaning

You might at least have stayed on, like the egg left unhatched in a dead woman's nest. And today you say it is over, and go.

Commentary

94 The Egg Left in the Nest

After the death of the wife of the late Prince of the Ministry of Central Affairs, he had been living with his young children at the house of her father, the Minister of the Right of Sanjō. When the mourning was over, since he could not go on alone indefinitely, he thought of taking as his wife the Ninth Lady, the dead woman's younger sister, and her parents and brothers saw no objection. But then, somehow, word got about that Morotada, while still a chamberlain, had been sending letters to the Ninth Lady. Displeased, it seems, the prince went back to his own house; and at that the Lady of Sanjō sent him "Naki hito no sumori ni dani mo narubeki o ima wa to kaeru kyō no kanashisa", to which his reply was "Sumori ni to omou kokoro wa todomuredo kai arubeku mo nashi to koso kike". That is the whole of the section.
The Prince of the Ministry of Central Affairs headed that ministry. The Minister of the Right of Sanjō is Fujiwara no Sadakata, who appears in the ninety-first section; the dead wife was his daughter and the Ninth Lady her younger sister. The Lady of Sanjō was also Sadakata's daughter, and appears in the ninety-fifth and ninety-sixth sections. A chamberlain served close to the emperor's person.
The setting is the day the prince returned to his own house, the match with the Ninth Lady having failed on account of the rumour.
What prompted the poem was his going. It was sent after him.
He answered with a poem of his own, and the exchange closes the section.

The egg in the first lines is one that fails to hatch and stays in the nest after the other chicks have flown, and so stands for whatever remains behind.
Asking that he might at least have been such an egg, with a particle marking the smallest of requests, is asking that he stay in the house after his wife's death.
The verb in the fourth line means both to go home and to hatch, so that the prince's departure and an egg breaking open belong to the same nest.
The closing names the sadness of the day and stops, with no verb after it. A wish that he would stay and the fact of his going are gathered into a single image of a nest.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

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