Momoshiki no ōmiyabito wa kyō mo kamo itoma o nami to sato ni idezu aramu

ももしきの大宮人は今日もかも
暇をなみと里に出でずあらむ

Roma-ji: Momoshiki no ōmiyabito wa kyō mo kamo itoma o nami to sato ni idezu aramu
English Translation: In the hundred-stoned
palace, the courtiers even
today, I wonder,
saying they have no leisure,
will not come out to the village
Meaning: Will the courtiers of the palace, I wonder, again today say they have no leisure, and not come out to the village?
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 1026

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Four poems from a banquet at the house of the Minister of the Right, Tachibana, on the twentieth day of the eighth month, in autumn"
This poem voices the feelings of a woman waiting in the village for a man who serves at court: will the courtiers again today, saying they have no leisure, fail to come out to the village? Rather than reproaching the man who does not come, she speaks as if considerate of his busy duties, yet her longing seeps through.
According to the headnote, these are four poems from a banquet held at the house of the Minister of the Right, Tachibana no Moroe, on the twentieth day of the eighth month in autumn. The headnote gives no year, but the arrangement suggests the banquet took place in Tenpyō 10 (738). Moroe had become Minister of the Right in the first month of that year, and officials gathered for a banquet at his residence.
The left note reads "The above poem was transmitted by the Minister of the Right, who said it was a poem by the late Palace Attendant of Toshima." The host, the Minister of the Right Tachibana no Moroe, presented it at this gathering as a poem of the late attendant, showing that he recalled and recited an old attendant's poem at the banquet.
The poet, the Palace Attendant of Toshima, seems to have been a court attendant who came to serve at the palace from the district of Toshima, but nothing more is known of her. Since the left note calls her "the late," she had already died by the time of this banquet.

This poem and the next, 1027, were both recited at the banquet as poems of the Palace Attendant of Toshima. This one thinks of a courtier from the position of a waiting woman, while the next sings of a heart that broods unknown to others, so that two love poems stand side by side.
The first line, "In the hundred-stoned," renders "momoshiki no," a pillow word for "palace," thought to mean a palace built of many stones. It is a phrase of praise for the court.
The second line, "palace, the courtiers even," refers to those who serve at court, here the man who is being waited for.
In the third line, "today, I wonder," "kamo" is an interrogative binding particle that answers "aramu" in the final line in a kakari-musubi construction. Saying "today too" shows that there have been many days without a visit.
The fourth line, "saying they have no leisure," uses "nami," formed from "nashi" with the suffix "-mi" to give a reason, and "to" quotes the man's excuse.
The final line, "will not come out to the village," ends with "mu," the attributive form of the conjectural auxiliary, which closes the construction begun by "kamo" in the third line. Across the distance between court and village, it expresses in the form of a guess the loneliness of the one who waits.
Author: The Palace Attendant of Toshima
Source: Manyoshu
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