Hisakata no miyako o okite kusamakura tabi yuku kimi o itsu to ka matamu

ひさかたの都を置きて草枕
旅行く君をいつとか待たむ

Roma-ji: Hisakata no miyako o okite kusamakura tabi yuku kimi o itsu to ka matamu
English Translation: From the capital
under the far-reaching sky
you go, pillowed on grass,
off upon your journey—when
shall I wait for your return?
Meaning: You leave the capital behind and set out on your journey—for what day am I to wait for your return?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems 3252

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Envoy"
This poem follows the preceding envoy. Seeing off one who leaves the capital on a journey, she laments not knowing for what day to wait for his return. The fear in the chōka (3250)—“if in the end I never meet you”—shifts here to a concrete scene of parting before the traveler. The closing line “itsu to ka matamu” appears in the same form in 3321 of this book, a shared ending in women’s poems of seeing someone off.
The poet is unknown. Book Thirteen is built mainly of anonymous chōka and their envoys, and many of its poems preserve the air of old songs and ritual verse.

The first line, “hisakata no,” is a pillow word normally for “heaven” or “sky”; here it is unusually applied to “capital,” out of a feeling that looks up to the capital as to heaven.
The second line, “miyako o okite,” means “leaving the capital behind,” expressing parting from a familiar place.
The third line, “kusamakura” (grass pillow), is a pillow word for “journey,” evoking the hardship of sleeping in the open.
The fourth line, “tabi yuku kimi o,” means “you who go on a journey,” naming the beloved from the viewpoint of the one left behind.
In the closing line, “ka” is an interrogative particle and “mu” closes in the attributive in a kakari-musubi construction: “for when shall I wait?”—voicing the anxiety of an unseen day of return. It is the same closing line as 3321 of this book.
Source: Manyoshu
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