Hito wa yoshi omoiyamu tomo tamakazura kage ni mietsutsu wasuraenu kamo

人はよし思ひやむとも玉葛
影に見えつつ忘らえぬかも

Roma-ji: Hito wa yoshi omoiyamu tomo tamakazura kage ni mietsutsu wasuraenu kamo
English Translation: Though others, perhaps,
may cease to long for you now,
like the jeweled vine,
your image keeps appearing—
I cannot forget you, lord.
Meaning: Others may cease to long for you, but for me your image keeps appearing before my eyes, and I cannot forget you.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 149

Headnote: "A poem composed by the Great Empress Yamato after the death of the Emperor"
After the Emperor's death, she says that though others may in time stop longing for him, his image keeps appearing to her and she cannot forget him.
According to the headnote, the Great Empress Yamato composed this after Emperor Tenji's death. Her three poems, a prayer during his illness, a sense of his departing spirit, and mourning after his death, are arranged in the order of events.
The author, Yamato no Hime no Ōkimi, was the empress of Emperor Tenji and a daughter of Prince Furuhito no Ōe, a son of Emperor Jomei. The headnotes call her the Great Empress or the Great Empress Yamato.

In the first line, "hito wa yoshi," yoshi means "even if": others, even if they.
In the second line, "omoiyamu tomo," tomo is concessive: even if they stop longing.
The third line, "tamakazura," is a pillow word for kage, "image," from the vine worn as a hair ornament. In 101 and 102 of this book the same word is used in an exchange of courtship, so it appears in contrasting roles in love poems and in a lament for the dead.
The fourth line, "kage ni mietsutsu," means "continually appearing as an image."
In the final line, "wasuraenu kamo," e marks possibility, nu negation, and kamo exclamation: I cannot forget.
Author: Yamato no Hime no Ōkimi
Source: Manyoshu
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