Shika no yama itaku na kiri so Araora ga yosuka no yama to mitsutsu shinowamu

志賀の山いたくな伐りそ荒雄らが
よすかの山と見つつ偲はむ

Roma-ji: Shika no yama itaku na kiri so Araora ga yosuka no yama to mitsutsu shinowamu
English Translation: Hills of Shika,
do not cut your trees too much—
I'll gaze on you
as the hills to remember him by,
and so cherish Arao.
Meaning: Do not cut down too many trees on the hills of Shika; I will gaze on them as the hills that keep Arao's memory and so recall him.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Poems with Tales of Origin and Miscellaneous Poems 3862

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten poems on the fisherman of Shika in Chikuzen."
The wife asks that the trees on the hills of Shika not be cut, for she will look on them as a keepsake of Arao and remember him. With no body returned to her, she wishes to cherish the hills of home as a link to her husband.
According to the left note, in the Jinki era the Dazaifu appointed Munakatabe no Tsumaro of Munakata District in Chikuzen as helmsman of a ship carrying provisions to Tsushima. Too old to bear the sea, Tsumaro asked Arao, a fisherman of Shika village, to take his place, and Arao, bound by a friendship deeper than brotherhood, gladly agreed. He set sail for Tsushima from Cape Mineraku at Matsura in Hizen, but the sky suddenly darkened, a storm of wind and rain arose, and he sank beneath the sea. Some say his wife and children, unable to bear their longing, made these poems; others that Yamanoue no Okura, Governor of Chikuzen, made them in sympathy with their grief.
The poet, according to one account in the left note, is Yamanoue no Okura, who went to Tang China with an embassy and served as Governor of Chikuzen. He is known for poems on life's hardships and family affection. The poems speak in the voice of Arao's wife and children.

First line, "Shika no yama," names the hills of Shikanoshima in Chikuzen, Arao's home.
Second line, "itaku na kiri so," means "do not cut them so much," and the poem pauses here. Na... so marks a prohibition.
Third line, "Araora ga," means "Arao's."
Fourth line, "yosuka no yama to," means "as the hills to recall him by," seeking in the hills a link to a husband with no grave.
Final line, "mitsutsu shinowamu," means "I will gaze and remember." The volitional mu shows her resolve to keep remembering him as she looks on the hills.
Author: Yamanoue no Okura (attributed)
Source: Manyoshu
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