Kimi ga kiru mikasa no yama ni iru kumo no tateba tsugaruru koi mo suru kamo

君が着る御笠の山に居る雲の
立てば継がるる恋もするかも

Roma-ji: Kimi ga kiru mikasa no yama ni iru kumo no tateba tsugaruru koi mo suru kamo
English Translation: On Mikasa Hill,
named for the hat that you wear,
the clouds that settle
rise and still come on again:
such a love it is I feel
Meaning: Like the clouds that settle on Mount Mikasa, named for the hat you wear, which rise and drift away yet keep coming one after another, so endless is the love I feel.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2675

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Like the clouds on Mount Mikasa, which rise and drift away only to be followed by more, the speaker feels a love that never breaks off. Clouds welling up without end serve as an image for a love that does not cease.
This is one of the poems on clouds. Its last line "koi mo suru kamo" is shared with poem 2672 of this book, and both take the same form of painting a scene in a preface to show the nature of a love. Where the preceding poem entrusted love to clouds thinning away, this one entrusts it to clouds that keep coming, setting vanishing and continuing clouds side by side.
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, "kimi ga kiru": "that you wear," a pillow word attached to "Mikasa" from the sense of a hat (kasa). The poem opens with words that call the beloved to mind.
Second line, "mikasa no yama ni": "on Mount Mikasa," the hill at Kasuga in Nara. The sense of "hat" from the first line echoes in "Mikasa."
Third line, "iru kumo no": "the clouds resting there." The first three lines form a preface, leading from the clouds to "rise and keep coming" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "tateba tsugaruru": "though they rise and leave, more follow." Clouds welling up without pause are laid over the ceaselessness of love.
Fifth line, "koi mo suru kamo": "such a love I feel." The exclamatory "kamo" conveys the feeling of being caught in a love without end.
Source: Manyoshu
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