Yo no naka o ushi to omoite iede seshi ware ya nani ni ka kaerite naramu

世の中を憂しと思ひて家出せし
我れや何にか還りてならむ

Roma-ji: Yo no naka o ushi to omoite iede seshi ware ya nani ni ka kaerite naramu
English Translation: Finding this world
a place of grief and weariness,
I left my house;
what then could I become
were I to return again?
Meaning: I left home thinking the world a place of sorrow—what could I possibly become were I to go back now?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems 3265

Headnote: "An envoy in a certain book reads"
This is an envoy to the chōka (3263) handed down in a certain book. One who left home finding the world wretched laments that returning now would make him nothing. It takes up the chōka’s line—if there were a beloved, he would go home to his land and his house—from the side of one who has abandoned home. Where the preceding poem speaks of love, this one shifts its gaze to weariness of the world, with a tone suggesting renunciation and withdrawal.
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, “yo no naka o,” points to the world of people as something wearisome.
The second line, “ushi to omoite,” means “thinking it painful,” giving the reason for leaving home.
The third line, “iede seshi,” means “who left home,” with “shi,” the attributive of the past “ki,” modifying the “I” that follows.
In the fourth line, “ya” and “ka” are particles of question and rhetorical doubt, asking what is to become of him.
The closing line, “kaerite naramu,” means “what would I become by returning,” with “mu” in the attributive in kakari-musubi with “ka,” closing on the rhetorical lament that he could become nothing.
Source: Manyoshu
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