Omochichi mo tsuma mo kodomo mo takadaka ni komu to matsuramu hito no kanashisa

母父も妻も子どもも高々に
来むと待つらむ人の悲しさ

Roma-ji: Omochichi mo tsuma mo kodomo mo takadaka ni komu to matsuramu hito no kanashisa
English Translation: Mother, father, too,
his wife and his children, all
standing on tiptoe
must be waiting for his return—
how sad, the fate of this man
Meaning: His mother and father, his wife and children must be waiting even now on tiptoe for him to come home—how sad is this man’s fate.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Elegies 3340

Headnote: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to the variant chōka (3339). Its headnote reads, “Poem composed by Tsuki no Omi no Obito on seeing a corpse on the shore of Kashima in Bingo Province”; seeing a traveler fallen on the beach, he grieves that the man’s family must still be waiting for him. It differs from 3337 of this book by a single word—“must be waiting” for “must have waited”—and by imagining the family still waiting now, it brings the pathos closer.
The poet Tsuki no Omi no Obito bore the clan name Tsuki no Omi and the hereditary title Obito; his personal name has not come down to us. All that is known of him is that he composed poems on seeing the body of a traveler fallen on the shore of Kashima in Bingo Province, thought to be near present-day Fukuyama, Hiroshima.

The first line, “omochichi mo,” means “mother and father too,” the same opening as 3337.
The second line, “tsuma mo kodomo mo,” means “his wife and children too,” counting the waiting family one by one.
The third line, “takadaka ni,” describes waiting eagerly, as if on tiptoe.
In the fourth line, “ramu” is a present conjectural: “they must be waiting even now for him to come,” imagining the distant family as they are now. In 3337 it reads “machikemu.”
The closing line, “hito no kanashisa,” means “the sorrow of this man,” ending on a noun to leave compassion for the dead and his family.
Author: Tsuki no Omi no Obito
Source: Manyoshu
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