Utsusemi no yo no koto ni areba yoso ni mishi yama o ya ima wa yosuka to omowamu

うつせみの世のことにあれば外に見し
山をや今はよすかと思はむ

Roma-ji: Utsusemi no yo no koto ni areba yoso ni mishi yama o ya ima wa yosuka to omowamu
English Translation: In this mortal world
such things are the common way;
so the hills I saw
as nothing, shall I now take
as the place to cherish her?
Meaning: Since this is the way of the mortal world, shall I now take the hills I once saw as nothing to me as the place to remember her?
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 482

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem with tanka composed by Takahashi no Ason in grief for his dead wife" — "Envoy"
This is the first envoy to a long poem mourning his dead wife. Since death too is the way of this world, the hills he once looked on as having nothing to do with him he will now regard, with his wife buried there, as the place through which to remember her. Ōtomo no Yakamochi's poem 474 in this book likewise sings that Mount Saho, once seen as nothing to him, became dear as his wife's grave, so the same feeling echoes in the arrangement.
A left note says these three poems were composed by Takahashi no Ason on the twentieth day of the seventh month of Tenpyō 16 (744); his personal name is unknown, but he is said to be a son of the Chief Steward.
There is no settled view on who Takahashi no Ason was, since his personal name has not come down. Ason is a hereditary title, and the left note calls him "a son of the Chief Steward," so he is thought to have been a son of the head of the Imperial Table Office.

First line "In this mortal world": utsusemi means this present world, also a pillow word for yo.
Second line "such things are the common way" shows that death too is the way of the world.
Third line "so the hills I saw as nothing" has one syllable too many; it echoes "I saw it as naught to me" in the second line of poem 474.
Fourth line "shall I now take": ya is an interrogative binding particle concluded by mu at the end.
Fifth line "as the place to cherish her": yosuka is something to hold to, a link to the departed.
Author: Takahashi no Ason
Source: Manyoshu
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