Kutamiyama yū iru kumo no usure yukaba are wa koimu na kimi ga me o hori

朽網山夕居る雲の薄れゆかば
我れは恋ひむな君が目を欲り

Roma-ji: Kutamiyama yū iru kumo no usure yukaba are wa koimu na kimi ga me o hori
English Translation: On Mount Kutami
the clouds that rest at evening,
should they fade away,
how I shall long for you then,
wishing just to see your eyes
Meaning: If the clouds resting on Mount Kutami at evening should thin and fade away, how I shall long for you, yearning to see you.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2674

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The speaker, a woman, gazes at the clouds resting on Mount Kutami at evening and thinks of her lover; should those clouds thin and vanish, she says, her longing will only deepen. The poem shows a heart that treats the clouds on the mountain as a keepsake of the beloved.
After the poems on the moon, a run of poems on clouds begins here. Where the preceding poem spoke of love after the moon had moved on, this one speaks of love after the clouds have faded, carrying over the idea of entrusting love's growth to a vanishing sight. Mount Kutami lies in the province of Bungo, a place name far from the capital.
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, "Kutamiyama": a mountain in Bungo, present-day Oita Prefecture, thought to be the Kuju range. Placing the place name first fixes the scene.
Second line, "yū iru kumo no": "the clouds resting there at evening." "Iru" describes clouds staying in one place.
Third line, "usure yukaba": "if they should fade away." The irrealis form with "ba" expresses a supposition.
Fourth line, "are wa koimu na": "how I shall long." The conjectural "mu" with the exclamatory particle "na" closes a clause here.
Fifth line, "kimi ga me o hori": "wishing to see you." "Me" stands for meeting, and the line adds the reason for the fourth line in inverted order.
Source: Manyoshu
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