Yama no ma yu Izumo no kora wa kiri nare ya Yoshino no yama no mine ni tanabiku

山の際ゆ出雲の子らは霧なれや
吉野の山の嶺にたなびく

Roma-ji: Yama no ma yu Izumo no kora wa kiri nare ya Yoshino no yama no mine ni tanabiku
English Translation: From between the hills
cloud-rising, the Izumo girl—
has she become mist,
that on the Yoshino hills
she hangs trailing from the peaks?
Meaning: The Izumo girl, whose name means clouds rising between the hills—has she turned to mist, trailing over the peaks of the Yoshino mountains?
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 429

Headnote: "Two poems composed by Kakinomoto no Ason Hitomaro when the Izumo maiden, who had drowned, was cremated at Yoshino"
This is the first of two poems composed when the Izumo maiden, who had drowned, was cremated at Yoshino. Playing on her name, Izumo, as "clouds rising from between the hills," it sees the cremation smoke trailing on the peaks of Yoshino as the girl turned to mist. Like the preceding poem on the maiden of Hijikata, it sees the dead in the smoke of cremation.
Hitomaro's two poems on the cremation at Yoshino of the Izumo maiden, who had drowned, form a sequence that overlays her name, Izumo ("cloud-rising"), with clouds, and remembers her in the mist of Yoshino and in her black hair drifting on the river.
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 "From between the hills": yu marks the source; the same words as the preceding poem's third line. Since clouds rise between hills, it leads to Izumo.
Second line "cloud-rising, the Izumo girl": Izumo is the maiden's name, punning on "clouds rising"; ra is an affectionate suffix.
Third line "has she become mist": nare is the conditional of the copula and ya interrogative.
Fourth line "that on the Yoshino hills" names the mountains of Yoshino.
Fifth line "she hangs trailing from the peaks" ends with the image of the girl turned to mist.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Komoriku no Hatsuse no yama no yama no ma ni isayou kumo wa imo ni ka mo aramu
Next Poem: Yakumo sasu Izumo no kora ga kurokami wa Yoshino no kawa no oki ni nazusau