Amagumo no yoso ni mo hito no nariyuku ka sasuga ni me ni wa miyuru mono kara - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

天雲のよそにも人のなりゆくか
さすがに目には見ゆるものから

Roma-ji: Amagumo no yoso ni mo hito no nariyuku ka sasuga ni me ni wa miyuru mono kara
English Translation: Like clouds in heaven
are you drifting far away,
a stranger to me,
though, for all that, to my eyes
you are still there to be seen?
Meaning: Are you becoming distant from me, like the clouds in the sky? And yet I can still see you with my own eyes.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 784

Headnote: "Lord Narihira was living with the daughter of Ki no Aritsune, but, having some grievance, for a while he came only by day and went home each evening, so she composed and sent this."
Ariwara no Narihira was living with his wife, the daughter of Ki no Aritsune, but after some grievance he came by day and left each evening, so she wrote and sent him this poem. She likens her husband, visible by day but never staying the night, to clouds in the sky, seen yet out of reach, and voices her loneliness as his heart drifts away. The next poem is Narihira's reply.
This exchange also appears in section nineteen of The Tales of Ise, told of a man and a lady in court service.
The author, "Ki no Aritsune ga Musume," is the Daughter of Ki no Aritsune. Her father was Ki no Aritsune, son of Ki no Natora, and she became the wife of Ariwara no Narihira.

The first line names clouds in the sky, distant yet visible, leading to yoso, "far away," in the second line.
In the second line yoso means a remote, unrelated place, showing her husband turning into a stranger.
In the third line ka is a question tinged with exclamation: are you becoming so? The poem breaks here.
In the fourth line sasuga ni means "even so," referring to his daytime visits.
In the last line mono kara is concessive, "though you are seen," and the poem trails off. It matches clouds that are visible yet out of reach.
Author: Daughter of Ki no Aritsune
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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