Shiramayumi ishie no yama no tokiwa naru inochi nare ya mo koitsutsu oramu

白真弓石辺の山の常磐なる
命なれやも恋ひつつ居らむ

Roma-ji: Shiramayumi ishie no yama no tokiwa naru inochi nare ya mo koitsutsu oramu
English Translation: As the rocks that stand
on Ishie, where white bows
are drawn, ever firm,
is my life so everlasting
that I could go on longing
Meaning: Is my life everlasting like the rocks of Mount Ishie, where white bows are drawn, that I could go on longing and longing like this?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2444

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
If one's life were as changeless as the rocks of Mount Ishie, it might be otherwise; but how, with a life that has its limit, can one go on longing forever? So laments this poem, which presses its wish to meet soon through the brevity of life.
Following the "rock roots" of the preceding poem, 2443, this poem too speaks through stone, setting the permanence of rock against the frailty of human life. The location of Mount Ishie is unknown, and one view places it at Ishibe in Omi.
The author is unknown; according to the left note, the poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection. That collection is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he recorded. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jito and Emperor Monmu, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "shiramayumi": a pillow word attached to "Ishie." A white bow is drawn to shoot, iru, and the sound "i" leads to Ishie.
Second line, "ishie no yama no": "of Mount Ishie." The "stone" in the mountain's name calls up "everlasting rock" in the third line.
Third line, "tokiwa naru": "everlasting like rock." The lines up to here form a preface that modifies "life" in the fourth line through the changeless nature of rock.
Fourth line, "inochi nare ya mo": "is my life such? Surely not." "Nare ya mo," the perfective "nare" with "ya" and "mo," expresses a rhetorical question.
Fifth line, "koitsutsu oramu": "could I go on longing?" The particle "tsutsu" expresses continuation, and the auxiliary "mu" closes the poem in answer to the rhetorical question of the fourth line.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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