Shikikaezu arishi nagara ni kusamakura chiri nomi zo iru harau hito nami

English Translation

Not laid again, still
as it was on that night, the
grass pillow: nothing
settles on it now but dust
for there is no one to sweep

Meaning

Not laid again, still as it was that night, the grass pillow: nothing settles on it now but dust, for there is no one to sweep it.

Commentary

140 Dust on the Grass Pillow

While the late Prince of the Ministry of Military Affairs was visiting the daughter of the Major Counsellor Noboru, he once had a temporary bed made up in the aisle room rather than in the usual place, and spent a night there and went home. He did not come again for some time, and then sent to ask whether the bed laid in the aisle room was still there or had been put away; and her answer was "Shikikaezu arishi nagara ni kusamakura chiri nomi zo iru harau hito nami". His reply was "Kusamakura chiri harai ni wa karakoromo tamoto yutaka ni tatsu o mate kashi", and she answered again with "Karakoromo tatsu o matsu ma no hodo koso wa waga shikitae no chiri mo tsumorame", at which he came to her. On another occasion, when he sent word that he was going hunting at Uji, her answer was "Mikari suru Kurikomayama no shika yori mo hitori nuru mi zo wabishikarikeru". That is the whole of the section.
The Prince of the Ministry of Military Affairs appears in the ninetieth, hundred and sixth, hundred and seventh, hundred and thirty-seventh and hundred and thirty-ninth sections. The Major Counsellor Noboru is Minamoto no Noboru, who held that office; the poet is his daughter. The aisle room ran around the outside of the main hall.
The setting is the period after his night in the aisle room, with no further visits.
What prompted the poem was his asking whether the bed was still there or had been put away. It is her reply.
He answered with a poem of his own, and the section goes on into the exchange.

The opening answers his question: it has not been laid again, and is as it was.
The grass pillow is properly the pillow of a traveller, and here it is the temporary bed in the aisle room — a makeshift bed likened to a bed on the road.
What follows says that nothing but dust has settled there, with an emphatic particle governing the verb.
The closing gives the reason: there is no one to sweep. Dust gathers because no one comes to clear it, and the one who does not come is the prince. She answers his question and reproaches him in the same breath.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

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