Wa ga seko ga furisake mitsutsu nagekuramu kiyoki tsukuyo ni kumo na tanabiki

我が背子が振り放け見つつ嘆くらむ
清き月夜に雲なたなびき

Roma-ji: Wa ga seko ga furisake mitsutsu nagekuramu kiyoki tsukuyo ni kumo na tanabiki
English Translation: My dear one, my love,
will gaze up from far away
and sigh at the sight
of the clear moon in the night:
O clouds, do not trail across
Meaning: On this clear moonlit night, when my husband must be gazing up from afar and sighing, O clouds, do not trail across the sky.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2669

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Imagining that her distant husband must be gazing up at the same moon and sighing, the speaker, a woman, begs the clouds not to veil the clear moonlit night. The poem carries the feeling that sharing the same moon links the hearts of two people far apart.
This is one of the poems on the moon. The phrase "kiyoki tsukuyo" (clear moonlit night) recurs in the next poem, 2670; where this poem fears clouds hiding the moon, the next speaks of love deepening after the moon has moved on.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "wa ga seko ga": "my husband." "Seko" is a term of endearment used by a woman for her husband or lover, marking this as a woman's poem.
Second line, "furisake mitsutsu": "gazing up into the distance." The particle "tsutsu" shows him looking up at the moon again and again.
Third line, "nagekuramu": "he must be sighing." The auxiliary "ramu" imagines what the distant husband is doing at this very moment.
Fourth line, "kiyoki tsukuyo ni": "on this clear moonlit night." It points to the moon the two share, and the second and third lines modify this "moonlit night."
Fifth line, "kumo na tanabiki": "clouds, do not trail." Placing the adverb "na" before the continuative form of the verb expresses a prohibition, addressed to the clouds as a plea.
Source: Manyoshu
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