Hashiki yoshi kaku nomi kara ni shitaikoshi imo ga kokoro no sube mo subenasa

はしきよしかくのみからに慕ひ来し
妹が心のすべもすべなさ

Roma-ji: Hashiki yoshi kaku nomi kara ni shitaikoshi imo ga kokoro no sube mo subenasa
English Translation: Ah, my beloved,
when it was to come to this,
yearning, you followed —
the heart of my own dear wife,
there is nothing, nothing to be done
Meaning: Ah, my dear one. It was only to end like this, yet she followed me all this way out of love; when I think of her heart, I am utterly helpless.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 796

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "An elegy in Japanese: envoy"
The poet laments that when he thinks of the heart of his wife, who followed her husband all the way to distant Tsukushi only to die, he is utterly helpless. He pities the devotion of a wife who came without knowing her fate, and conveys the powerlessness of the husband left behind through the repetition in "sube mo subenasa."
This is the second of five envoys attached to the "Elegy in Japanese." The elegy is preceded by a Chinese preface and Chinese poem that cite Buddhist scripture at length on the impermanence of all living things and the grief of losing a wife; the long poem is called an "Elegy in Japanese" as the native-language counterpart to them. The left note says it was presented by Yamanoue no Okura, Governor of Chikuzen, on the twenty-first day of the seventh month of Jinki 5, and it is generally held that Okura composed it in the voice of Ōtomo no Tabito, Governor-General of Dazaifu, mourning the death of Tabito's wife.
The poet, Yamanoue no Okura, was an official who went to Tang China as a junior secretary with the embassy appointed in Taihō 1. After his return he served as Governor of Hōki and in the household of the Crown Prince, and late in the Jinki era he was posted to Tsukushi as Governor of Chikuzen. He is known for poems rooted in everyday life, on the sufferings of human existence, love for family, and poverty, written against a background of learning in Chinese classics and Buddhist scripture.

First line, "hashiki yoshi": an exclamation of tenderness, "ah, beloved," opening the poem like a call to the dead wife.
Second line, "kaku nomi kara ni": "when it was only to come to this." "Kara ni" marks cause, voicing grief that the journey led only to death.
Third line, "shitaikoshi": she followed her husband to Tsukushi out of love, echoing the long poem's "yearning like a crying child, you came after me."
Fourth line, "imo ga kokoro no": "imo" is the husband's intimate word for his wife; he cherishes the heart that made her follow.
Fifth line, "sube mo subenasa": "sube" is repeated to intensify "subenashi," and the poem closes on a noun, stating flatly a helplessness beyond remedy.
Author: Yamanoue no Okura
Source: Manyoshu
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