Masurao to omoeru ware ya mizukuki no mizuki no ue ni namida nogowamu

ますらをと思へる我れや水茎の
水城の上に涙拭はむ

Roma-ji: Masurao to omoeru ware ya mizukuki no mizuki no ue ni namida nogowamu
English Translation: A man of valor—
so I thought myself; must I,
by the stream-stalk
embankment of Mizuki,
be wiping away my tears?
Meaning: Must I, who have always thought myself a man of valor, now wipe away my tears beside the embankment of Mizuki?
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 968

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems composed in reply by Lord Ōtomo, the Major Counselor"
The poem says, in effect, "To think that I, who count myself a man of valor, should be wiping away tears beside the Mizuki embankment!" It is the second of Ōtomo no Tabito's two poems answering the wandering entertainer Kojima, and after the witty reply of the preceding poem it turns to speak frankly of his own tears.
As the left note says, on this day Tabito halted his horse at Mizuki and looked back toward the Dazaifu, and "by the embankment of Mizuki" names that very spot. Where the woman wiped her tears and waved her sleeves, Tabito answers that he too is wiping away tears, sharing in the sorrow of parting. The Mizuki was an embankment built in the third year of Emperor Tenji (664) to defend the Dazaifu, and it was the first place a traveler bound for the capital would pass.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was the son of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and the father of Yakamochi. Toward the end of the Jinki era he went down to Tsukushi as Governor-General of the Dazaifu, and in the twelfth month of Tenpyō 2 (730) he was appointed Major Counselor and returned to the capital. He died the following year, in the seventh month of Tenpyō 3 (731), as a Major Counselor of the Junior Second Rank.

Against the woman's "wiping her tears" in the left note, this poem responds in its final line with "be wiping away my tears," forming a pair in which the one who sees off and the one seen off both wipe their tears. The word "masurao" (man of valor) in the first line also recurs in the poems that follow, as in "the road on which men of valor go" in 974.
The first line, "A man of valor," means a fine and brave man, and presents the speaker's standing as the one who governed Tsukushi as Governor-General.
The second line, "so I thought myself; must I," means "I who think myself so." "Ya" is an interrogative binding particle that is resolved by "nogowamu" in the final line. It opens the gap between his pride as a man of valor and the tears that follow.
The third line, "by the stream-stalk," contains the pillow word "mizukuki no" (stream-stalk), which modifies "Mizuki" through the overlap of their sounds.
The fourth line, "embankment of Mizuki," means "beside the Mizuki embankment." It is the place where Tabito stopped his horse and looked back at the Dazaifu, naming the very scene of parting.
The final line, "be wiping away my tears?" means "am I to wipe away my tears," closing in the attributive "mu" in response to "ya" in the second line. In the surprise of a self-declared man of valor shedding tears lies the pain of parting.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito
Source: Manyoshu
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