Tezukuri o sora yu hikikoshi tōmi koso mekoto karurame tayu to hedate ya

手作りを空ゆ引き越し遠みこそ
目言離るらめ絶ゆと隔てや

Roma-ji: Tezukuri o sora yu hikikoshi tōmi koso mekoto karurame tayu to hedate ya
English Translation: As hand-woven cloth
is drawn across the wide sky,
it is the distance
keeps our meetings and our words apart:
do I part us thinking love has ended?
Meaning: Like hand-woven cloth drawn far across the sky, it is only the distance that keeps us from meeting and speaking. Would I set us apart because our love had ended? Never.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2647

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The speaker protests that the lack of meetings and of words exchanged is due only to the distance between their homes, not to any wish to part because love has ended. The poem blames the estrangement on distance and seeks to assure the beloved that there has been no change of heart.
The first two lines form a preface leading to "tomi," "because it is far," and are thought to liken the distance to cloth drawn out long through the air, though views differ on the exact scene. After the float's cord of the preceding poem, this poem speaks through cloth, a product of handwork.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "tezukuri o": "hand-woven cloth." The original script writes it as "eastern fine cloth," apparently a delicate fabric from the eastern provinces.
Second line, "sora yu hikikoshi": "drawn across through the sky." "Yu" marks the route, and these two lines form a preface leading to "tomi."
Third line, "tomi koso": "because it is far." The suffix "mi" attached to an adjective stem expresses a reason, and the binding particle "koso" links to "rame" in the next line.
Fourth line, "mekoto karurame": "meeting and speaking must have grown distant." "Rame" is the perfective form of the present-conjectural "ramu," concluding the "koso" of the third line.
Fifth line, "tayu to hedate ya": "would I set us apart thinking love has ended? No." The particle "ya" forms a rhetorical question that firmly denies any change of heart.
Source: Manyoshu
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