Mutsumashiki Imose no Yama to shiraneba ya hatsuaki kiri no tachihedatsuran - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

むつましき妹背の山と知らねばや
初秋霧の立ち隔つらん

Roma-ji: Mutsumashiki Imose no Yama to shiraneba ya hatsuaki kiri no tachihedatsuran
English Translation: Being unaware
that these are the loving hills,
wife and husband both,
does the early autumn mist
rise up and part them so?
Meaning: Is it because it does not know that these are the fond hills of wife and husband, Imose, that the early autumn mist rises to part them?
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Autumn Poems 1095

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet wonders whether the early autumn mist, not knowing that Imoyama and Seyama are the fond hills of a wife and husband, rises up to part them. The mist of autumn coming between two hills that bear the names of a married couple is likened to a loving pair being kept apart. Placed after the series of Tanabata poems, it carries the theme of two parted lovers into a scene of autumn mist.

First line, "mutsumashiki," means "fond," "close in love."
Second line, "Imose no Yama to," means "that these are the Imose hills," treating the Imose hills, a famous place of Kii province, as hills of husband and wife.
Third line, "shiraneba ya," means "is it because it does not know," with "ya" a questioning binding particle answered by "ran" in the final line.
Fourth line, "hatsuaki kiri no," means "the early autumn mist," standing beside the fourth line of the next poem, 1096, "aki tatsu kiri mo," in singing of early autumn mist. It also shares the mist with the third line of 1089 in this book, "kiri harete."
Final line, "tachihedatsuran," means "rises and parts them," with "ran," the attributive form of the auxiliary of present conjecture, resolving the "ya" of the third line.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
Prev Poem: Aimizute hitohi mo kimi ni narawaneba tanabata yori mo ware zo masareru
Next Poem: Moshio yaku keburi ni naruru Suma no ama wa aki tatsu kiri mo wakazu ya aruran