Ashibe yori kumoi o sashite yuku kari no iya tōzakaru waga mi kanashi mo - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

葦辺より雲居をさして行く雁の
いや遠ざかる我が身悲しも

Roma-ji: Ashibe yori kumoi o sashite yuku kari no iya tōzakaru waga mi kanashi mo
English Translation: From the reedy shore
heading toward the cloudy heights
go the flying geese;
so ever farther I drift,
and how sad this self of mine
Meaning: Like the wild geese that fly from the reedy shore toward the far clouds, I am drawn ever farther from you, and how sad I am.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 819

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
Like geese flying from the reedy shore into the far sky, the speaker grieves at drifting ever farther from the lover. The first three lines form a preface leading to "grow distant," layering the growing distance between the two onto the image of the geese. The closing kanashi mo has an archaic, Man'yō-like ring.

The first line, "from the reedy shore," names the place from which the geese take flight.
In the second line kumoi means the region of the clouds, the far sky, and sashite means "heading toward."
The third line names geese flying across the sky; the lines up to here form a preface leading to "grow distant" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line iya means "ever more," layering the geese flying off with the speaker drifting from the lover.
In the last line mo is an exclamatory particle, "how sad," an archaic usage common in early poetry.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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