Tobu tori no asuka no sato o okite inaba kimi ga atari wa miezu ka mo aramu

飛ぶ鳥の明日香の里を置きて去なば
君があたりは見えずかもあらむ

Roma-ji: Tobu tori no asuka no sato o okite inaba kimi ga atari wa miezu ka mo aramu
English Translation: If I leave behind
Asuka, the village where
the birds were flying,
will the place where you abide
be lost from my sight for good?
Meaning: If I go away and leave behind the village of Asuka, will I no longer be able to see the place where you dwell?
Commentary: Book One Miscellaneous Poems 78

Headnote: "A poem composed when, in the second month of spring in the third year of Wadō, kanoe-inu, the court moved from the Fujiwara Palace to the Nara Palace, and the palanquin was halted on the plain of Nagaya to gaze back toward the old home (one text says it was composed by the Retired Empress)"
On the way from the Fujiwara capital to the new capital at Nara, the palanquin halts on the plain of Nagaya, and the poet, looking back toward home, wonders whether leaving the village of Asuka means she will no longer see the place where "you" dwell. The leading view takes "you" to be Prince Kusakabe, laid to rest in Asuka, and the poem expresses deep reluctance to leave a familiar land and the one who lies there. It dates from the move to the Heijō capital in 710, the third year of Wadō. The headnote names no author; because one text calls it the Retired Empress's poem, some attribute it to Empress Jitō, but it is generally regarded as Empress Genmei's. The text notes a variant ending, "shall I go on without seeing where you dwell?"
Empress Genmei, whose personal name was Princess Ahe, was a daughter of Emperor Tenji. Consort of Prince Kusakabe and mother of Emperor Monmu, she took the throne after Monmu's death and in 710, the third year of Wadō, moved the capital to Heijō.

The first line, tobu tori no, "where birds fly," is a pillow word for Asuka, and the source of writing Asuka with the characters for "flying bird."
The second line names the village of Asuka near the Fujiwara capital. Poem 51 in this book also sings of the Asuka wind, and the two echo each other as poems lamenting Asuka after the capital moved away.
In the third line, oku means to leave behind and inu to go away; with ba it means "if I go and leave it behind." The line is hypermetric.
The fourth line, "the place where you are," is read as referring to the late Prince Kusakabe, or by others to someone remaining in Asuka.
In the last line, kamo is a question and mu conjecture: "will it no longer be seen?" This line too is hypermetric. The variant, "shall I go on not seeing it?" gives a similar sense.
Author: Empress Genmei (some say Empress Jitō)
Source: Manyoshu
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