Komoriku no Hatsuse no yama no yama no ma ni isayou kumo wa imo ni ka mo aramu

こもりくの初瀬の山の山の際に
いさよふ雲は妹にかもあらむ

Roma-ji: Komoriku no Hatsuse no yama no yama no ma ni isayou kumo wa imo ni ka mo aramu
English Translation: Hidden valley land,
on the mountain of Hatsuse,
between the peaks there,
the cloud that lingers, drifting—
could it be my dear one now?
Meaning: The cloud that hangs hesitating between the peaks of Mount Hatsuse—could that be the girl?
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 428

Headnote: "A poem composed by Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro when the maiden of Hijikata was cremated on Mount Hatsuse"
This was composed when the maiden of Hijikata was cremated on Mount Hatsuse. Seeing a cloud drifting hesitantly between the peaks, the poet takes it for the smoke of her cremation turned to cloud and asks whether it is she. Dating from the time when cremation was beginning to spread, it overlays the cloud's hesitation with the dead girl's reluctance to leave this world. It is placed as one of a sequence of cremation poems with the poems on the Izumo maiden that follow.
The poet, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active from the reign of Jitō to that of Monmu. Master of both long and short poems, he was later revered as the "Saint of Poetry." His rank was low, and much of his life remains obscure.

First line "Hidden valley land" is a pillow word for Hatsuse.
Second line "on the mountain of Hatsuse": the mountains of Hatsuse in Yamato, known as a place of burial.
Third line "between the peaks there": the next poem's first line uses the same words, yama no ma.
Fourth line "the cloud that lingers, drifting": isayou means to hesitate—a cloud drifting as if unwilling to go.
Fifth line "could it be my dear one now": ka is interrogative and mu conjectural, seeing the smoke as the girl herself.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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