Tarachishi no haha ga me mizute ōhoshiku izuchi mukite ka a ga wakaruramu

たらちしの母が目見ずておほほしく
いづち向きてか我が別るらむ

Roma-ji: Tarachishi no haha ga me mizute ōhoshiku izuchi mukite ka a ga wakaruramu
English Translation: Without having seen
my own dear mother's face again,
with a heavy heart,
turning in which direction
shall I take my leave of all?
Meaning: Without seeing my mother's face again, heavy-hearted, which way should I turn as I take leave of this world?
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 887

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Six poems respectfully composed by Yamanoue no Okura, Governor of Chikuzen, in response, expressing Kumagori's feelings on his behalf, with preface"
The poem laments: not having seen his mother's face, heavy-hearted, which way should he turn as he parts from life? It expresses a dying youth's love for his mother to the last, along with anxiety at an unseen road ahead.
The preface records that Ōtomo no Kimi Kumagori, of Mashiki District in Higo, was on his way to the capital on the seventeenth day of the sixth month of Tenpyō 3, aged eighteen, as attendant to a provincial official serving as wrestling envoy, when he fell ill and died at the Takaba post station in Saeki District, Aki. On his deathbed he said that this borrowed body perishes easily and a life like foam cannot be held, but his aged parents in their hut were waiting for his return and would weep themselves blind on learning he would not come; what grieved him was not his own death but their suffering, and he composed six poems and died. Okura, speaking in Kumagori's place, wrote one long poem and five tanka.
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, "tarachishi no": a pillow word for mother.
Second line, "haha ga me mizute": "without meeting my mother."
Third line, "ōhoshiku": heavy-hearted, the same word as the third line of Asada no Yasu's poem 884.
Fourth line, "izuchi mukite ka": "izuchi" means which direction, and "ka" is resolved by "ramu" in the last line.
Fifth line, "a ga wakaruramu": "shall I depart," closing on thoughts of leaving this world.
Author: Yamanoue no Okura
Source: Manyoshu
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