Iebito no matsuramu mono o tsure mo naki ariso o makite naseru kimi kamo

家人の待つらむものをつれもなき
荒礒を巻きて寝せる君かも

Roma-ji: Iebito no matsuramu mono o tsure mo naki ariso o makite naseru kimi kamo
English Translation: Though those at your home
must be waiting for you still,
on a stranger’s shore,
pillowed on the rugged rocks,
here you lie asleep, my lord
Meaning: Though your family must be waiting for you, here you lie, pillowed on the rocks of a shore that knows you not.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Elegies 3341

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Envoy"
This poem follows the preceding envoy. Though his family must be waiting, the dead man lies pillowed on a rocky shore with no tie to him. Taking up the chōka’s (3339) “pillowing his head on the edge of the bay,” it sets the waiting family against the dead man fallen in an unknown land. Together with the following 3342 and 3343, it forms a sequence of words heaped upon the same dead man, and it shares with 3343 the words “tsure mo naki” and “tsure mo naku” (without any tie).
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, “iebito no,” means the family remaining at home, those awaiting the dead man’s return.
The second line, “matsuramu mono o,” means “though they must be waiting,” with “ramu” a present conjectural and “mono o” a concessive sigh.
The third line, “tsure mo naki,” means “with no tie at all,” marking the place as alien to the dead man.
In the fourth line, “maku” means to use as a pillow, picturing him lying with his head on the rocky shore.
In the closing line, “nasu” is an honorific of “nu” (to sleep): out of respect he says “you lie asleep,” closing with the exclamatory “kamo.”
Author: Tsuki no Omi no Obito
Source: Manyoshu
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