Akiyama no momiji o shigemi madoinuru imo o motomemu yamaji shirazu mo

秋山の黄葉を茂み惑ひぬる
妹を求めむ山道知らずも

Roma-ji: Akiyama no momiji o shigemi madoinuru imo o motomemu yamaji shirazu mo
English Translation: Because the colored
leaves grow thick on the autumn hills,
my wife has lost her way—
I would go and search for her,
but I do not know the mountain path.
Meaning: Because the colored leaves grow so thick on the autumn hills, my wife has lost her way among them; I would go to seek her, but I do not know the mountain path.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 208

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems composed by Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro, weeping tears of blood in grief, after the death of his wife, two short poems"
Picturing his dead wife as having strayed into the autumn hills thick with colored leaves, he laments that he would go and seek her but does not know the mountain path. The poem suggests the belief that the dead go into the mountains.
These elegies, composed by Hitomaro after his wife's death in grief so deep that he wept tears of blood, are known as the poems of tearful lament. Two short poems are appended to each of two long poems, and a long poem with three short poems from another text is recorded as well. The first long poem, 207, mourns a wife in Karu whom he had loved in secret; the second, 210, mourns a wife who died leaving a small child. This is the first of the two short poems appended to 207.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. A master of the long poem and the elegy, he is the representative poet of the Man'yōshū and was later revered as the Saint of Poetry.
A note records a variant giving the final line as "michi shirazu shite." Here the main text is followed.

The first line, "akiyama no," means "of the autumn hills in color." Autumn hills also appear in 92 by Princess Kagami and 106 by Princess Ōku in this book.
The second line, "momiji o shigemi," uses the o ... mi construction to give a cause: because the colored leaves are so thick.
In the third line, "madoinuru," nuru is the attributive of the perfective nu: who has lost her way. Her death is expressed as straying into the hills.
In the fourth line, "imo o motomemu," mu expresses intention: I would seek my wife.
In the final line, "yamaji shirazu mo," mo is exclamatory: I do not know the mountain path. Like "michi no shiranaku" in 158 by Prince Takechi in this book, grief takes the form of not knowing the way to the dead.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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