Kinō koso kimi wa arishika omowanu ni hamamatsu no ue ni kumo ni tanabiku

昨日こそ君はありしか思はぬに
浜松の上に雲にたなびく

Roma-ji: Kinō koso kimi wa arishika omowanu ni hamamatsu no ue ni kumo ni tanabiku
English Translation: Only yesterday,
it was that you still lived on;
and yet, unforeseen,
high above the shoreline pines
you trail now, become a cloud.
Meaning: Only yesterday you were alive—and now, unforeseen, you trail as a cloud above the pines along the shore.
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 444

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem with tanka composed by the Inspector Ōtomo no Sukune Minaka when Hasetsukabe no Tatsumaro, a clerk of the rice-field allotment office of Settsu, hanged himself in Tenpyō 1, the year tsuchinoto-mi" — "Envoy"
In Tenpyō 1 (729), when Hasetsukabe no Tatsumaro, a clerk working on the rice-field allotment in Settsu, hanged himself, his superior Ōtomo no Minaka mourned him in a long poem; this is its first envoy. The man who was alive only yesterday now trails as cremation smoke above the shore pines—shock and grief at a sudden death.
The poet, Ōtomo no Minaka, was a Nara-period official who served as Inspector in the rice-field allotment office of Settsu and was later appointed Vice-Envoy to Silla, among other posts.

First line "Only yesterday": koso is a binding particle concluded by shika in the second line.
Second line "it was that you still lived on": shika, the conditional of the past ki, carries "though." The sentence breaks here.
Third line "and yet, unforeseen" means unexpectedly.
Fourth line "high above the shoreline pines" has one syllable too many.
Fifth line "you trail now, become a cloud": the cremation smoke turned to cloud presents the reality of death as a scene.
Author: Ōtomo no Minaka
Source: Manyoshu
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