Kesa yukite asu ni wa kinamu to [unread] asazumayama ni kasumi tanabiku

今朝行きて明日には来なむと云子鹿丹
朝妻山に霞たなびく

Roma-ji: Kesa yukite asu ni wa kinamu to [unread] asazumayama ni kasumi tanabiku
English Translation: Setting out this dawn,
saying "Tomorrow I'll come back,"
[the line is unread]
there on Mount Asazuma
the haze is trailing along.
Meaning: "I leave this morning and will be back tomorrow," so it was said—(the third line's reading is uncertain)—and on Mount Asazuma, the "morning wife," a haze trails along.
Commentary: Book Ten Spring Miscellaneous Poems 1817

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Spring Miscellaneous Poems"
This poem sings of the haze trailing over Mount Asazuma, and its upper lines seem to function as a preface leading into the place name "Asazuma," the "morning wife." The association of a wife whose husband left in the morning saying he would return tomorrow seems to draw out the name, so that the feelings of a couple's parting and reunion are faintly overlaid on the spring scene.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet of the Asuka period, active under Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. The left note records that this poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection, and it is uncertain whether it is Hitomaro's own work or a poem by someone else that he recorded.
The original text of the third line, "云子鹿丹," has long resisted a settled reading, and the kana line of the source gives no reading for it. Here the source's transcription is kept as it stands, and the meaning is taken only from the general drift of the upper lines.

The first line, "setting out this morning," means leaving this very morning. It marks someone's departure, and together with the rest of the upper lines forms a preface to "Asazuma."
In the second line, "asu ni wa kinamu to," "na" is the irrealis form of the completive auxiliary "nu," and "mu" expresses intention. These are the parting words: tomorrow I will surely come back.
The third line, "云子鹿丹," has no settled reading. It seems to include the sense of "so it was said," and appears to suggest the wife waiting for the husband who left with those words.
The fourth line, "on Mount Asazuma," names a mountain at Asazuma at the foot of Mount Katsuragi in Yamato, present-day Gose, Nara. The image of the couple in the upper lines leads into this place name.
The last line, "the haze trails," is the ending shared by the group, and like 1816 it closes with the haze hanging over the mountain.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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