Ōzora wa koishiki hito no katami ka wa mono omou goto ni nagameraruramu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

大空は恋しき人の形見かは
もの思ふごとに眺めらるらむ

Roma-ji: Ōzora wa koishiki hito no katami ka wa mono omou goto ni nagameraruramu
English Translation: Is the great wide sky
a keepsake of the one
for whom I long so?
Why is it, then, when I brood,
I find myself gazing there?
Meaning: The vast sky is no keepsake of the one I long for—so why is it that whenever I am lost in thought, I find myself gazing up at it?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 743

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Though the great sky is no keepsake of the beloved, the speaker finds himself gazing at it whenever he is lost in thought. The feeling of living under the same sky as the one he longs for is carried in the gesture of looking up, and the poem was cherished by later generations.
From this poem to the book's final poem, 746, the poems take up "keepsakes," and this one opens the sequence by singing of a heart that gazes at the sky, which is no keepsake at all.
The author, written in kana as "Sakai no Hitozane," is Sakai no Hitozane. After serving in posts such as provisional senior clerk of Bizen, he was raised to the Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade, and appointed governor of Tosa in the fourteenth year of Engi.

The first line, "ōzora wa," means "the wide sky," the particle "wa" marking the topic.
The second line, "koishiki hito no," means "of the one I long for."
The third line, "katami ka wa," means "is it a keepsake? It is not," using the rhetorical "ka wa"; the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "mono omou goto ni," means "whenever I am lost in thought."
The final line, "nagameraruramu," means "why do I find myself gazing?", the spontaneous "raru" joined to "ramu," which surmises a cause.
Author: Sakai no Hitozane
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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