Kusamakura tabi inishi kimi ga kaerikomu tsukihi o shiramu sube no shiranaku

草枕旅去にし君が帰り来む
月日を知らむすべの知らなく

Roma-ji: Kusamakura tabi inishi kimi ga kaerikomu tsukihi o shiramu sube no shiranaku
English Translation: Grass for a pillow,
you have gone on a journey—
when you will come home,
what month and what day it will be,
I know no way to learn
Meaning: You have gone away on your journey, and I have no way of knowing the month or the day when you will come home.
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3937

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twelve poems sent by Lady Heguri to Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi, Governor of Etchū"
There is no way to know when he who has gone on his journey will return—a poem of waiting for the day of reunion. This is one of twelve poems that Lady Heguri entrusted to messengers from time to time and sent to Yakamochi, who had left the capital as Governor of Etchū. In plain words it conveys the forlornness of waiting for a lover at a distant post whose return date is unknown.
The poet, Lady Heguri, was a woman of the Heguri clan whose life is otherwise unknown. She was one of the women who exchanged love poems with Yakamochi.
The left note reads, "The above twelve poems were sent from time to time by passing messengers; they were not sent all at once."

First line, "kusamakura": a pillow word for journeys, the same opening as the preceding poem, 3936.
Second line, "tabi inishi kimi ga": "you who have gone on a journey," a hypermetric line of eight morae.
Third line, "kaerikomu": "when you will return," modifying tsukihi ("month and day") in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "tsukihi o shiramu": "to know the month and day."
Fifth line, "sube no shiranaku": shiranaku is the ku-form of shirazu, "that I know no way," an exclamation. It uses the same construction as "iso no shiranaku" in 3892, sharing the unease of a journey whose course cannot be known.
Author: Lady Heguri
Source: Manyoshu
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