Mizukuki no oka no kuzuha o fukikaeshi omo shiru kora ga mienu koro kamo

水茎の岡の葛葉を吹きかへし
面知る子らが見えぬころかも

Roma-ji: Mizukuki no oka no kuzuha o fukikaeshi omo shiru kora ga mienu koro kamo
English Translation: On the hillside, wind
turns the arrowroot leaves over,
showing them so plain;
the girl whose face I know so well
has not appeared of late
Meaning: As the wind turns over the arrowroot leaves on the hill and shows them plainly, so the girl whose face I know so well has not been seen these days.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3068

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
Using the scene of arrowroot leaves on a hill turned over by the wind as an introduction, the poet laments that a well-known girl has not appeared lately. The pale undersides of the wind-tossed leaves suggest the clear image of her face lingering in memory.
The poet is unknown. Book Twelve, titled the second part of "Love Poems Exchanged Old and New," gathers love poems by people whose names have not come down to us, arranged by category.

Line one, "mizukuki no," is a pillow word for "oka," hill.
Line two, "oka no kuzuha o," means "the arrowroot leaves on the hill."
Line three, "fukikaeshi," means "the wind turning them over," and the lines up to here form an introduction leading from the clearly visible undersides to "omo shiru."
Line four, "omo shiru kora ga," means "the girl whose face I know well," echoing "omo shiru kimi ga" in poem 3015 in this book.
Line five, "mienu koro kamo," means "has not appeared these days," the same final line as poem 2972 in this book.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
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