Waga yuki no ikizukushikaba Ashigara no mine haho kumo o mitoto shinowane

我が行きの息づくしかば足柄の
峰延ほ雲を見とと偲はね

Roma-ji: Waga yuki no ikizukushikaba Ashigara no mine haho kumo o mitoto shinowane
English Translation: If my going away
makes you sigh with heavy heart,
then on Ashigara
watch the clouds that crawl the peak
and, gazing, remember me
Meaning: If my departure makes you sigh with longing, look at the clouds creeping over the peaks of Ashigara and remember me.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4421

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
If my going makes you sigh, look at the clouds creeping over Ashigara's peaks and remember me: the poem entrusts a scene to his wife as a keepsake. It is the ninth poem from Musashi, and the next poem is thought to be by this author's wife. He asks that the clouds over the Ashigara mountains he will cross become a means of thinking of him. A Hitachi guard's poem likewise tells his wife to remember him by looking at Tsukuba's peak. Haho for hau and mitoto for mitsutsu are dialect forms.
The author, Hatoribe no Oyu, is recorded as a regular guard from Tsuzuki District in Musashi; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "waga yuki no," means "my departure."
The second line, "ikizukushikaba," means "if it makes you sigh."
The third line, "Ashigara no," names Mount Ashigara on the border of Sagami and Suruga, the pass on the road west from the eastern provinces.
The fourth line, "mine haho kumo o," means "the clouds creeping over the peaks."
The closing line, "mitoto shinowane," with ne, a request: please remember me as you watch them.
Author: Hatoribe no Oyu
Source: Manyoshu
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