Kaerubeku toki wa narikeri miyako nite ta ga tamoto o ka waga makurakamu

帰るべく時はなりけり都にて
誰が手本をか我が枕かむ

Roma-ji: Kaerubeku toki wa narikeri miyako nite ta ga tamoto o ka waga makurakamu
English Translation: The time to return
has come round now, I find—
in the capital,
whose arm, I wonder, shall I
take to pillow my head on?
Meaning: The time has come for me to return—but in the capital, whose arm shall I pillow my head upon?
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 439

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems of longing for the departed by the Governor-General of Dazaifu, Lord Ōtomo, in Jinki 5, the year tsuchinoe-tatsu"
This is the second of the three poems of longing for the departed. The time to return to the capital draws near, but there he will have no wife's arm to pillow on—loneliness before the homeward journey. Taking up "arm for a pillow" from the preceding poem, he laments again his wife's absence. The left note to the next poem says these two were composed as the time of departure for the capital approached.
The three poems of the Governor-General Lord Ōtomo longing for the departed form a sequence in which Tabito, who lost his wife, Lady Ōtomo, at Dazaifu in Jinki 5 (728), yearns for her.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was a son of Ōtomo no Yasumaro. He served as Middle Counselor and Governor-General of Dazaifu before rising to Great Counselor, and died in Tenpyō 3 (731). Steeped in Chinese letters, he was at the center of a poetic circle with Yamanoue no Okura and others while serving in Tsukushi.

First line "The time to return" means the time to go back to the capital.
Second line "has come round now, I find": keri voices realization; the sentence breaks here.
Third line "in the capital" means in the city.
Fourth line "whose arm, I wonder": tamoto means the arm, and ka is an interrogative binding particle concluded in the last line.
Fifth line "shall I take to pillow my head on": makuraku means to use as a pillow, and mu is conjectural.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito
Source: Manyoshu
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