Wagimoko ga mishi Tomo no ura no muro no ki wa tokoyo ni aredo mishi hito zo naki

我妹子が見し鞆の浦のむろの木は
常世にあれど見し人ぞなき

Roma-ji: Wagimoko ga mishi Tomo no ura no muro no ki wa tokoyo ni aredo mishi hito zo naki
English Translation: My dear wife once saw
at the bay of Tomo here
this juniper tree—
it remains forever so,
but she who saw it is gone.
Meaning: The juniper tree at Tomo Bay that my wife once saw is still here, unchanged forever—but she who saw it is no more.
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 446

Headnote: "Five poems composed by the Governor-General of Dazaifu, Lord Ōtomo, when setting out for the capital in the twelfth month of winter, Tenpyō 2, the year kanoe-uma"
This is the first of five poems composed on the way back to the capital. The juniper at Tomo Bay, which he saw with his wife on the way out, remains unchanged, but she who saw it is gone from this world—a lament contrasting changeless nature with the person lost. The left note to the third says these three were composed on the day of passing Tomo Bay. Tomo Bay is a harbor in present-day Fukuyama, Hiroshima.
In the twelfth month of winter in Tenpyō 2 (730), Tabito, appointed Great Counselor and traveling from Dazaifu to the capital, saw again, alone, the scenes of Tomo Bay and Cape Minume that he had seen with his late wife on the way out, and composed this sequence.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was a son of Ōtomo no Yasumaro. He served as Middle Counselor and Governor-General of Dazaifu before rising to Great Counselor, and died in Tenpyō 3 (731). Steeped in Chinese letters, he was at the center of a poetic circle with Yamanoue no Okura and others while serving in Tsukushi.

First line "My dear wife": wagimoko is an affectionate term for one's wife.
Second line "once saw at the bay of Tomo": shi is the past attributive; the line has one syllable too many.
Third line "this juniper tree": muro no ki is thought to be the needle juniper, a noted tree of Tomo Bay.
Fourth line "it remains forever so": tokoyo means eternal and unchanging.
Fifth line "but she who saw it is gone": zo is a binding particle concluded by naki. Repeating mishi ("saw") from the second line deepens the lament.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Itsushika to matsuramu imo ni tamazusa no koto dani tsugezu inishi kimi kamo
Next Poem: Tomo no ura no iso no muro no ki mimu goto ni aimishi imo wa wasurae me ya mo