Kusamakura tabi ni hisashiku arame ya to imo ni iishi o toshi no henuraku

草枕旅に久しくあらめやと
妹に言ひしを年の経ぬらく

Roma-ji: Kusamakura tabi ni hisashiku arame ya to imo ni iishi o toshi no henuraku
English Translation: Grass for a pillow,
could my journey last so long,
so I told my love,
and yet a year has turned
while I have been away
Meaning: "How could my journey last so long?" I told my wife, and yet the year has turned while I have been away.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3719

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Five poems composed on returning by way of Tsukushi and reaching Ieshima in Harima Province, on the sea route back to the capital"
He laments that though he told his wife his journey could not last so long, the year has turned. The embassy, which departed promising to return in autumn, set out for home only after the year had changed, and the poem expresses regret at failing to keep the promise. It answers from afar 3581 and 3586 of this book, in which an autumn reunion was pledged in the parting exchange.
According to the headnote, this is one of five poems composed on the way back from Silla, when the travelers came round by Tsukushi on the sea route to the capital and reached Ieshima in Harima Province. Ieshima is the present-day Ieshima Islands of Himeji, Hyōgo Prefecture. The embassy returned to the capital after the new year, in the ninth year of Tenpyō, but the ambassador Abe no Tsugumaro had died on Tsushima on the way back, and the vice-ambassador Ōtomo no Minaka's return was delayed by illness. The author of this poem is not named.

First line, "kusamakura": from tying grass for a pillow when sleeping on a journey, a pillow word for "tabi" (journey).
Second line, "tabi ni hisashiku": long on a journey.
Third line, "arame ya to": "me" is the realis of the conjectural "mu" and "ya" rhetorical: could it be long? Surely not; the words he spoke to his wife at departure.
Fourth line, "imo ni iishi o": "shi" is the attributive of the past "ki" and "o" adversative: though I told my wife.
Fifth line, "toshi no henuraku": "raku" is the nominalized form of the perfective "nu": that the year has passed, the poem ends in exclamation.
Source: Manyoshu
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