Muko no ura no irie no sudori hagukumoru kimi o hanarete koi ni shinubeshi

武庫の浦の入江の洲鳥羽ぐくもる
君を離れて恋に死ぬべし

Roma-ji: Muko no ura no irie no sudori hagukumoru kimi o hanarete koi ni shinubeshi
English Translation: Like the shore birds
of the inlet at Muko
sheltering their young,
parted from you who sheltered me
I shall surely die of love
Meaning: As the birds on the sandbars of the inlet at Muko Bay enfold their young beneath their wings, so you have sheltered me; parted from you, I shall surely die of longing.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3578

Headnote: "The envoys sent to Silla grieve at parting and exchange poems, express their sorrowful feelings on the sea route, and recite old poems suited to the places they pass"
This poem was composed by a wife left behind as her husband departed as an envoy to Silla. She pleads that, parted from the husband who cherished her as a parent bird shelters its chicks under its wings, she will die of longing. Placed at the head of Book Fifteen, it opens the sequence of some 145 poems by the envoys to Silla.
The first half of this book gathers the poems of the embassy sent to Silla in the eighth year of Tenpyō (736), arranged in the order of the journey from the departure at Naniwa to the return. A left note reads "the above eleven poems are an exchange," and these opening eleven poems are the parting exchanges between the envoys and their wives before departure. None of the authors is named.

First line, "Muko no ura no": Muko Bay was the shore near the mouth of the Muko River, in present-day Amagasaki and Nishinomiya in Hyōgo Prefecture, the first coast a ship leaving Naniwa would pass. The first two lines form a preface (jokotoba) leading into the third line, "hagukumoru."
Second line, "irie no sudori": the water birds on the sandbars of the inlet; the image of parent birds covering their young with their wings becomes the metaphor of the next line.
Third line, "hagukumoru": to enfold and protect under one's wings, likening the husband's tender care for his wife. In the next poem, 3579, the husband answers with the same word, "hagukumi mochite," making the correspondence of the exchange clear.
Fourth line, "kimi o hanarete": "kimi" is the husband; "hanarete" means being parted and drawn far away.
Fifth line, "koi ni shinubeshi": "beshi" is an auxiliary of conjecture, voicing the intense lament that she will surely die of longing.
Source: Manyoshu
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