Mukashi koso yoso ni mo mishika wagimoko ga okutsuki to omoeba hashiki Sahoyama

昔こそ外にも見しか我妹子が
奥つ城と思へばはしき佐保山

Roma-ji: Mukashi koso yoso ni mo mishika wagimoko ga okutsuki to omoeba hashiki Sahoyama
English Translation: In the past, it's true,
I saw it as naught to me;
but now I know it
is the grave of my dear wife,
how dear to me is Mount Saho!
Meaning: In the past I looked on it as nothing to me—but now that I know it is my wife's resting place, how dear Mount Saho has become!
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 474

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Five more poems composed while grief had not yet ceased"
This is the fifth of the five poems composed while his grief had not yet ceased, closing the sequence mourning his concubine. Mount Saho, once nothing to him, has become dear because it is his wife's grave—the mountain transformed into a special place by her burial. Moving a step beyond the grief of the preceding poem, the sequence closes with love for the mountain as the dwelling of the departed.
This belongs to a sequence of elegies that Ōtomo no Yakamochi composed from the sixth month of summer into autumn in Tenpyō 11 (739), mourning his late concubine.
The poet, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and a Nara-period official. He served as Governor of Etchū and of Inaba, among other posts, rose to Middle Counselor, and died in Enryaku 4 (785). He is thought to have been deeply involved in compiling the Man'yōshū.

First line "In the past, it's true": koso is a binding particle concluded by shika in the second line.
Second line "I saw it as naught to me": yoso means something unrelated; shika, the conditional of the past ki, carries "though." The sentence breaks here.
Third line "but now I know it" introduces his wife.
Fourth line "is the grave of my dear wife": okutsuki is a grave; the line has one syllable too many.
Fifth line "how dear to me is Mount Saho": hashiki means dear, ending on a noun.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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