Sode furaba miyubeki kagiri ware wa aredo sono matsugae ni kakurai ni keri

袖振らば見ゆべき限り我れはあれど
その松が枝に隠らひにけり

Roma-ji: Sode furaba miyubeki kagiri ware wa aredo sono matsugae ni kakurai ni keri
English Translation: If I wave my sleeve,
I am within sight of you,
where you could see me,
yet among those pine branches
you have vanished out of view
Meaning: I stand where you could see me if I waved my sleeve, yet you have vanished from sight among the branches of that pine.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2485

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Though the speaker stands where she could be seen if she waved her sleeve, the departing figure has disappeared behind the branches of that pine: the poem voices the reluctance of parting while seeing someone off. It is understood as a woman's poem, gazing long after one who goes away.
This is one of the poems "Expressing Feelings through Things," set upon the pine. As if answering the preceding poem's "ueshi matsu no ki," it speaks of "sono matsugae," so that the pine which in the preceding poem was a token of awaited reunion here becomes what hides the figure at parting. The arrangement treats the same pine from two sides, the heart that waits and the heart that parts.
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, "sode furaba": "if I wave my sleeve." Waving a sleeve was a gesture of farewell and affection. "Ba" attached to the irrealis form expresses a condition.
Second line, "miyubeki kagiri": "within the range where I should be seen." "Beki" is the attributive form of the auxiliary "beshi."
Third line, "ware wa aredo": "though I am here." "Do" is a concessive particle. It is a hypermetric line of six syllables.
Fourth line, "sono matsugae ni": "among the branches of that pine." "Ga" is an attributive particle, and the line takes up the pine of the preceding poem.
Fifth line, "kakurai ni keri": "you have hidden yourself away." "Kakurau" means to remain hidden, "ni" is the continuative form of the perfective auxiliary "nu," and "keri" expresses exclamation, closing on the loneliness after the figure has vanished.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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