Ie ni kite waga ya o mireba tamadoko no hoka ni mukikeri imo ga komakura

家に来て我が屋を見れば玉床の
外に向きけり妹が木枕

Roma-ji: Ie ni kite waga ya o mireba tamadoko no hoka ni mukikeri imo ga komakura
English Translation: Coming home again,
when I look into our room,
on the jeweled bed,
turned away, facing outward,
lies my dear wife's wooden pillow.
Meaning: When I come home and look into our room, there on our fine bed my wife's wooden pillow lies turned away, facing outward.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 216

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems composed by Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro, weeping tears of blood in grief, after the death of his wife, three short poems of the poem in another text"
Returning home after the funeral and looking into the bedroom, he sees his wife's wooden pillow turned away from the bed, and is struck by the sight of a bed without its mistress. It is famous for finding the reality of death in a small everyday object.
These elegies, composed by Hitomaro after his wife's death in grief so deep that he wept tears of blood, are known as the poems of tearful lament. Two short poems are appended to each of two long poems, and a long poem with three short poems from another text is recorded as well. The first long poem, 207, mourns a wife in Karu whom he had loved in secret; the second, 210, mourns a wife who died leaving a small child. This is the third of the three short poems appended to 213, the long poem from another text, and it has no counterpart among 211 and 212.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. A master of the long poem and the elegy, he is the representative poet of the Man'yōshū and was later revered as the Saint of Poetry.

The first line, "ie ni kite," means "coming home," showing he has returned after the burial.
The second line, "waga ya o mireba," means "when I look at our room."
In the third line, "tamadoko no," tama is honorific: of the fine bed, the bed the two of them shared.
In the fourth line, "hoka ni mukikeri," keri expresses realization: it is turned outward. The poem pauses here.
The final line, "imo ga komakura," means "my wife's wooden pillow." Ending on a noun and inverted, it leaves the image of the masterless pillow with great force.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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