Kora ga te o Makimukuyama wa tsune ni aredo suginishi hito ni yuki makame ya mo

子らが手を巻向山は常にあれど
過ぎにし人に行きまかめやも

Roma-ji: Kora ga te o Makimukuyama wa tsune ni aredo suginishi hito ni yuki makame ya mo
English Translation: Clasping my love's hand—
Mount Makimuku endures,
changeless as ever;
yet to one who has passed away
could I go and share a pillow?
Meaning: Mount Makimuku stands as it always has—but could I ever go to the one who has passed away and lie pillowed on her arm again?
Commentary: Book Seven Miscellaneous Poems 1268

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thoughts Arising from a Place"
Mount Makimuku stands unchanged, but the poet can no longer go to the one who has died and share an arm for a pillow. Setting the unchanging mountain against the one who will not return, the poem expresses deep mourning for the dead.
The headnote "Thoughts Arising from a Place" continues from the preceding sedōka, poem 1267 in this book. Mount Makimuku lies to the north of Mount Miwa in Yamato. The left note to the next poem says, "The two poems above come from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection." Within that collection it is written in the non-abbreviated style, in which particles and the like are written out.

The first line, "Clasping my love's hand," is a pillow word for Makimuku, from "maku," to pillow oneself on a beloved's arm.
The second line names Mount Makimuku in Yamato.
The third line, "changeless as ever," has an extra syllable.
The fourth line, "yet to one who has passed away," refers to the dead.
In the final line, "meya mo" is rhetorical, "could I go? Never." The sense of "maku" in the opening pillow word echoes in "makame" here.
Source: Manyoshu
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