Kamukaze no ise no hamaogi orifusete tabine ya suramu araki hamabe ni

神風の伊勢の浜荻折り伏せて
旅寝やすらむ荒き浜辺に

Roma-ji: Kamukaze no ise no hamaogi orifusete tabine ya suramu araki hamabe ni
English Translation: Where the god-winds blow,
the beach reeds of Ise
broken and laid down,
does he sleep his traveler's sleep
on that wild and lonely shore
Meaning: Is he sleeping on his journey now, on reeds he has broken and laid down on the beach at Ise, on that wild and desolate shore?
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 500

Headnote: "A poem composed by the wife who stayed behind when Go no Dan'ochi went to the province of Ise"
This poem was written by a wife left at home, anxious for her husband who had set out for Ise. She pictures him now, breaking reeds on the beach to lay down as a bed and sleeping on a wild, desolate shore. By imagining a concrete scene from his journey, she conveys her tender concern for him.
The author, the wife of Go no Dan'ochi, is a woman of whom nothing is known. Her husband is likewise unknown; since dan'ochi means a lay patron who gives offerings to a temple, he may have been a devout Buddhist.

First line, "Where the god-winds blow," is kamukaze no, a pillow word for Ise, taken to mean Ise where the divine wind blows, evoking the land's sanctity.
Second line, "the beach reeds of Ise," names the reeds growing on Ise's shore; in later times the phrase became a byword for the way the same thing goes by different names in different places.
Third line, "broken and laid down," means breaking the reeds and spreading them as a bed, picturing the husband's night on the road.
Fourth line, "does he sleep his traveler's sleep," uses the questioning ya and the present conjectural ramu: is he sleeping on his journey now? It closes in the attributive of ramu, and the poem breaks after this line.
Fifth line, "on that wild and lonely shore," names the rough beach; placed last by inversion, the place of his sleep strengthens her worry for him.
Author: The Wife of Go no Dan'ochi
Source: Manyoshu
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