Iwatano ni yadori suru kimi iebito no izura to ware o towaba ika ni iwamu

岩田野に宿りする君家人の
いづらと我れを問はばいかに言はむ

Roma-ji: Iwatano ni yadori suru kimi iebito no izura to ware o towaba ika ni iwamu
English Translation: You who take your lodging
on the moor of Iwata,
when your family asks,
where is he, of me,
what am I to say
Meaning: You who lie lodged on the moor of Iwata: when your family asks me where you are, what shall I tell them?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3689

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem with tanka composed when, on reaching the island of Iki, Yuki no Muraji Yakamaro suddenly fell victim to a plague and died"
An elegy addressing Yuki no Muraji Yakamaro, buried on the moor of Iwata on Iki, lamenting what to answer if his family asks where he is. Likening death to "lodging" as on a journey, it speaks to the dead man as if he were still on his travels. The pain of one who must tell the waiting family of his death is poignantly expressed in the form of a question.
According to the headnote, this is one of two envoys attached to the chōka 3688 of this book, an elegy composed when, on the embassy's arrival at the island of Iki, Yuki no Muraji Yakamaro suddenly fell ill with a plague and died. The "demon sickness" was an epidemic, which some take to be the smallpox then spreading. The left note reads only "the above three are elegies," and the author is not named.

First line, "Iwatano ni": a place on the island of Iki, where Yakamaro was buried.
Second line, "yadori suru kimi": "yadori" is lodging on a journey, likening his death and burial to sleeping on the road. Here the poet addresses the dead man.
Third line, "iebito no": "iebito" are family, those at home, here Yakamaro's family awaiting his return.
Fourth line, "izura to ware o": "izura" means where: asking me, where is he?
Fifth line, "towaba ika ni iwamu": "towaba" is hypothetical and "mu" conjectural: if they ask, what shall I say, the poem ends. A nine-syllable hypermetric line, it weighs heavily with the helplessness of having no answer.
Source: Manyoshu
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