Yukikaeri sora ni nomi shite furu koto wa waga iru yama no kaze hayami nari - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

行き帰り空にのみして経ることは
我がゐる山の風はやみなり

Roma-ji: Yukikaeri sora ni nomi shite furu koto wa waga iru yama no kaze hayami nari
English Translation: Going and coming,
forever I drift the sky;
that I spend my days so
is because the wind is fierce
on the mountain where I'd stay
Meaning: If I spend my days drifting back and forth across the sky like a cloud, it is because the wind blows so fiercely on the mountain where I would stay. It is your harshness that will not let me remain.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 785

Headnote: "Reply."
This is Narihira's reply to the poem by the daughter of Ki no Aritsune. Taking up her comparison of him to a cloud, he retorts that a cloud drifts back and forth across the sky because the wind on the mountain is fierce: he does not stay the night because she is so severe. Accepting her metaphor and turning the blame back on her, it is a poem of wit.
This exchange also appears in section nineteen of The Tales of Ise, where the reply begins "Clouds of heaven, only far away."
Ariwara no Narihira was the fifth son of Prince Abo, a son of Emperor Heizei, and his mother was Princess Ito, a daughter of Emperor Kammu. Given the surname Ariwara and made a commoner, he rose to Provisional Middle Captain of the Right Inner Palace Guards. He is one of the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

The first line, "going and returning," layers the movement of clouds with his coming by day and leaving by night.
The second line, "only in the sky," takes up "clouds in heaven" from the preceding poem and casts himself as a cloud.
In the third line furu means to pass time: that I spend my days so.
The fourth line, "the mountain where I would stay," likens his wife's home to a mountain.
In the last line hayami, the stem of hayashi with the causal mi, means "because the wind is fierce." Her severity is likened to the wind, and nari closes with an assertion.
Author: Ariwara no Narihira
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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