Yū sareba toko no he saranu tsugemakura nani shika nare ga nushi machi kataki

夕されば床の辺去らぬ黄楊枕
何しか汝れが主待ちかたき

Roma-ji: Yū sareba toko no he saranu tsugemakura nani shika nare ga nushi machi kataki
English Translation: When the evening comes,
never leaving the bedside,
you, boxwood pillow,
why is it that you must wait
for your master, all in vain?
Meaning: Boxwood pillow, never leaving the bedside when evening comes, why is it that you wait and wait for your master and he does not come?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2503

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Addressing the boxwood pillow placed at the bedside each evening, the speaker asks why it cannot welcome its master though it waits. It is thought to be a woman's poem lamenting, by speaking to the pillow, that the husband or lover who uses it does not come.
This poem speaks through a boxwood pillow, expressing loneliness indirectly by calling out to an object. Like poem 2501 in this book it has the words "toko no he sara-," it sings of a boxwood article like the comb of poem 2500, and, like poems 2500 and 2488, it poses a question with "nani shika."
The author is unknown; according to the left note, the poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection. That collection is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he recorded. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jito and Emperor Monmu, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "yū sareba": "when evening comes." "Saru" means for a time to arrive, and its realis form with "ba" expresses something repeated every evening.
Second line, "toko no he saranu": "never leaving the bedside." It is the same phrasing as "toko no he sarazu" in poem 2501 of this book, describing the pillow placed by the bed every night.
Third line, "tsugemakura": "boxwood pillow," a pillow made of boxwood. The noun set in the third line becomes the one to whom the following question is addressed.
Fourth line, "nani shika nare ga": "why is it that you." "Nare" refers to the pillow, which is addressed as if it were a person. The "ka" in "nani shika" is an interrogative binding particle linked to the fifth line.
Fifth line, "nushi machi kataki": "cannot welcome the master you wait for." The attributive "kataki" of the adjective "katashi" answers the "ka" of the fourth line. The "master" is the one who uses the pillow, the husband or lover whose visit is awaited.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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