Ashihiki no yamagawa no se no naru nae ni yutsukigatake ni kumo tachiwataru

あしひきの山川の瀬の鳴るなへに
弓月が岳に雲立ちわたる

Roma-ji: Ashihiki no yamagawa no se no naru nae ni yutsukigatake ni kumo tachiwataru
English Translation: Rushing down the hills
the mountain stream's shallows roar,
and even as they do
over Yutsuki's high peak
the clouds spread far and wide
Meaning: As the shallows of the mountain stream roar ever louder, clouds rise and spread across all of Yutsuki Peak.
Commentary: Book Seven Miscellaneous Poems 1088

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Clouds"
This poem shows clouds surging up and spreading over the whole of Yutsuki Peak even as the roar of the mountain stream's shallows grows louder. Engaging both hearing and sight, it powerfully captures the movement of nature in the mountains, as if before a storm, and is a representative landscape poem of the Hitomaro Collection.
Like the preceding poem, it depicts the clouds of Yutsuki Peak. Where the preceding poem inferred the mountain clouds from the river's waves, here the poet sees the clouds spreading with his own eyes, so the pair moves from inference to direct sight.
The left note says, "The two poems above come from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection," and so this poem too comes from that collection.

The first line uses "ashihiki no," a pillow word for "yama" (mountain).
The second line, "the mountain stream's shallows," echoes the Anashi River of the preceding poem and suggests the same Makimuku stream.
In the third line, "and even as they do," "nae ni" means "as" or "at the same time as," joining the rising roar and the spreading clouds as one unfolding phenomenon.
The fourth line, "over Yutsuki's high peak," is identical to the fourth line of the preceding poem, showing that both poems share the same mountain as their stage.
The final line, "the clouds spread far and wide," states as fact what the preceding poem's last line, "the clouds must be standing high," only supposed.
Source: Manyoshu
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