Kusamakura tabi no yadori ni ta ga tsuma ka kuni wasuretaru ie matamaku ni

草枕旅の宿りに誰が嬬か
国忘れたる家待たまくに

Roma-ji: Kusamakura tabi no yadori ni ta ga tsuma ka kuni wasuretaru ie matamaku ni
English Translation: With grass for pillow,
in a lodging on the road,
whose husband is he,
lying as if he's forgotten home,
while at home they wait for him?
Meaning: Whose husband is this, lying at a halt on his journey as though he had forgotten his homeland—while at home they must be waiting for him?
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 426

Headnote: "A poem composed in grief by Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro on seeing a dead body on Mount Kagu"
Seeing a man who had fallen and died on Mount Kagu, the poet composed this in deep sorrow. Whose husband is he, lying as though he had forgotten his homeland, while at home his wife must be waiting? he asks, feeling for both the dead man and his family. Like Prince Shōtoku's poem 415 in this book, it mourns one who died on the road.
The poet, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active from the reign of Jitō to that of Monmu. Master of both long and short poems, he was later revered as the "Saint of Poetry." His rank was low, and much of his life remains obscure.

First line "With grass for pillow" is a pillow word for "journey."
Second line "in a lodging on the road" means a halting place on the journey.
Third line "whose husband is he": tsuma here means husband; ka is an interrogative binding particle concluded by the attributive taru in the fourth line.
Fourth line "lying as if he's forgotten home": his death, which keeps him from returning, is expressed as forgetting.
Fifth line "while at home they wait for him": maku is the nominal form of mu, "though they must be waiting."
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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