classic waka stream

東のたぎの御門に侍へど
昨日も今日も召す言もなし
Roma-ji

Himugashi no tagi no mikado ni saburaedo kinō mo kyō mo mesu koto mo nashi

English Translation
At the eastern gate
by the rushing waterfall
I wait on duty,
yet yesterday and today
there comes no word to summon me.
Meaning
I wait on duty at the eastern gate beside the rushing falls, yet yesterday and today alike, no word comes to summon me.
Commentary
Book Two Elegies 184

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twenty-three poems composed in grief by the attendants of the Prince's palace"
Though he waits on duty at the eastern gate of the Shima Palace, no word summoning him comes, yesterday or today; he feels his master's absence afresh each day.
According to the headnote, these are twenty-three poems composed in grief by the attendants who served in Prince Kusakabe's palace. A left note, citing the Nihon shoki, records that the prince died in the fourth month of the third year of Empress Jitō's reign (689). The sequence takes up, scene by scene, the laments of the attendants: the garden and ponds of the Shima Palace bereft of their master, and the night watches they kept on the hills of Mayumi and Sada where the prince lay in state. This is the fourteenth poem of the sequence.
The authors were the attendants who served in Prince Kusakabe's palace, and their individual names have not come down to us. Toneri were officials who served close to the Emperor and members of the imperial family as guards and aides. One theory holds that Kakinomoto no Hitomaro composed the poems in the attendants' voice, but this is not settled.

The first line, "himugashi no," means "on the east"; the sixteenth poem of the sequence, 186, also speaks of "the great eastern gate."
In the second line, "tagi no mikado ni," tagi is a place where water rushes, and the phrase is taken to mean the eastern gate of the Shima Palace near a waterfall.
In the third line, "saburaedo," saburau means to wait upon a noble person, and do is concessive.
The fourth line, "kinō mo kyō mo," means "day after day."
The final line, "mesu koto mo nashi," means "there is no word of summons," stating flatly the reality of a masterless palace.
Source
Manyoshu
Prev Poem
Waga mikado chiyo tokotoba ni sakaemu to omoite arishi ware shi kanashi mo
Next Poem
Minatsutau iso no urami no iwatsutsuji moku saku michi o mata mo mimu kamo