Miyako naru aretaru ie ni hitori neba tabi ni masarite kurushikarubeshi

都なる荒れたる家にひとり寝ば
旅にまさりて苦しかるべし

Roma-ji: Miyako naru aretaru ie ni hitori neba tabi ni masarite kurushikarubeshi
English Translation: In the capital,
in a house gone all to ruin,
if I sleep alone,
more than on a journey, sure,
it will be hard to bear.
Meaning: If I sleep alone in my neglected house in the capital, it will surely be harder to bear than any journey.
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 440

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 third of the three poems of longing for the departed, closing the sequence. Even back in the capital, sleeping alone in a neglected house without his wife will be harder than any journey—he laments, foreseeing his loneliness after returning. A left note says these two were composed as the time of departure for the capital approached. Poem 451 in this book, composed on actually reaching home, says "harder, more than any journey, it has proved," so the foreboding here becomes lived experience.
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 "In the capital" means in the city.
Second line "in a house gone all to ruin" means a house untended without its mistress.
Third line "if I sleep alone" is a condition.
Fourth line "more than on a journey, sure" is the same as the fourth line of poem 451.
Fifth line "it will be hard to bear": beshi is conjectural, foreseeing his loneliness.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito
Source: Manyoshu
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