Amagakeri arigayoitsutsu mirame domo hito koso shirane matsu wa shiruramu

鳥翔成あり通ひつつ見らめども
人こそ知らね松は知るらむ

Roma-ji: Amagakeri arigayoitsutsu mirame domo hito koso shirane matsu wa shiruramu
English Translation: Soaring like a bird,
his spirit comes and goes and sees—
though this may be so,
it is not known to mortals;
yet surely the pine must know.
Meaning: Soaring like a bird, his spirit must keep coming back to look upon it; people may not know, but surely the pine knows.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 145

Headnote: "A poem by Yamanoue no Omi Okura, composed later in response"
Imagining that Prince Arima's spirit, soaring like a bird, keeps returning to look at the tied pine, he says that even if people do not know it, the pine surely does.
According to the headnote, this is a poem Yamanoue no Okura later composed in response to Naga no Okimaro's poems. A left note explains that although these poems were not composed at the time of drawing the coffin, they are placed among the elegies in accordance with their spirit.
The author, Yamanoue no Okura, traveled to Tang China as a member of an embassy and later served as governor of Hōki and of Chikuzen. He is known for poems that look closely at human life and society.

The first line, written with characters that are hard to read, is here read "amagakeri" and taken to mean soaring through the sky like a bird.
In the second line, "arigayoitsutsu," ari is a prefix of continuation: coming and going without end.
In the third line, "mirame domo," rame is the perfective form of the present conjecture ramu and domo is concessive: though he must be looking.
In the fourth line, "hito koso shirane," koso is a binding particle concluding in ne, the perfective form of the negative zu; it carries a concessive sense into the final line.
In the final line, "matsu wa shiruramu," ramu is present conjecture. Setting "people" in the fourth line against "the pine" here, it closes: though people do not know, the pine must know.
Author: Yamanoue no Okura
Source: Manyoshu
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