Kasugayama kumoi kakurite tōkedomo ie wa omowazu kimi o shi zo omou

春日山雲居隠りて遠けども
家は思はず君をしぞ思ふ

Roma-ji: Kasugayama kumoi kakurite tōkedomo ie wa omowazu kimi o shi zo omou
English Translation: Kasuga's mountain
has vanished behind the clouds,
so far away now,
yet I think not of my home,
it is you I'm thinking of
Meaning: Mount Kasuga has disappeared into the clouds, so far away now, yet I do not think of home; it is only you I think of.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2454

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The speaker has come so far that Mount Kasuga is lost in the clouds, yet thinks not of home but only of the beloved: a love poem of the road. While voicing the loneliness of watching the home mountain recede, it declares a love for the beloved that outweighs even that.
Like the preceding poem, this one speaks through clouds. Its last line, "kimi o shi zo omou," takes the same form as the last line of the preceding poem, "imo o shi zo omou," and the two are placed side by side. "Kimi" is usually a word women use for men, but here it refers to the person the traveling speaker longs for.
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, "Kasugayama": Mount Kasuga, east of the Nara capital, a familiar sight to the people of the city. Named at the outset, it serves as the landmark of the home left behind.
Second line, "kumoi kakurite": "hidden in the clouds." "Kumoi" means clouds, and "kakuri" is the continuative form of "kakuru," a verb that in ancient Japanese could also be conjugated in the yodan pattern.
Third line, "tōkedomo": "though it is far." "Tōke" is an old realis form of the adjective "tōshi" (far), followed by the concessive "domo."
Fourth line, "ie wa omowazu": "I do not think of home." The particle "wa" sets home apart, contrasting it with "kimi" in the last line.
Fifth line, "kimi o shi zo omou": "it is you alone I think of." "Shi" is an emphatic particle, and with the binding particle "zo" the verb "omou" closes in the attributive form (kakari-musubi).
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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