Shikitae no makura wa hito ni koto toe ya sono makura ni wa koke mushi ni tari

敷栲の枕は人に言とへや
その枕には苔生しにたり

Roma-ji: Shikitae no makura wa hito ni koto toe ya sono makura ni wa koke mushi ni tari
English Translation: On the spread-out cloth,
does a pillow speak a word
to anyone at all?
On that pillow, as it lies,
moss has grown and spread
Meaning: Does a pillow ever speak to anyone? No. And on that pillow of yours, moss has grown.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2516

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Questions and Answers"
Does a pillow speak to anyone? On that pillow moss has grown, the poem answers the preceding one. Exaggerating that the pillow, long unused with no visits, has sprouted moss, it turns the other's words back and reproaches the long months in which they have not slept together.
This is the answer in the exchange joined to the preceding poem by the left note "the two poems above." Taking up "the pillow sounding," it retorts that a pillow could never make a sound or speak, so that question and answer form a vivid pair around the same "pillow on the spread-out cloth."
The left note states that the one hundred and forty-nine poems up to here come from the collection of Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro, and this poem is the last of the Hitomaro Collection poems in Book Eleven.
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, "shikitae no": a pillow word attached to "pillow." Beginning with the same word as the preceding poem's first line, it shows that this poem answers that one.
Second line, "makura wa hito ni": "the pillow, to anyone." The particle "wa" singles out the pillow, taking up the preceding poem's "the pillow sounding."
Third line, "koto toe ya": "does it speak? No." "Koto toe" is the realis form of the verb "koto tou," and with "ya" it forms a rhetorical question. The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, "sono makura ni wa": "on that pillow." Repeating the word "pillow," it shifts attention to the pillow on the speaker's own bed.
Fifth line, "koke mushi ni tari": "moss has grown." "Ni" is the continuative form of the perfective "nu," and "tari" marks a lasting state, exaggerating how long the visits have ceased.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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