Yama no ha ni tanabiku kumo ya yukue naku narishi keburi no katami naruran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

山の端にたなびく雲や行方なく
なりし煙の形見なるらん

Roma-ji: Yama no ha ni tanabiku kumo ya yukue naku narishi keburi no katami naruran
English Translation: Upon the mountain's rim
the trailing cloud, could it be
a keepsake of the smoke
that rose and vanished, leaving
no trace of where it went?
Meaning: Is the cloud trailing along the mountain's rim a keepsake of the smoke that vanished, no one knows where?
Commentary: Book Nine Poems of Lament 600

Headnote: "Composed when, after Prince Dōshō of Ninnaji had passed away at Rengeshin'in, I went to his grave on the monthly anniversary of his death and felt forlorn because clouds hung over the mountain"
Composed when, after Prince Dōshō of Ninnaji died at Rengeshin'in, the poet visited his grave on the monthly day of his death and felt forlorn as clouds hung over the mountain. Is the cloud trailing on the mountain's rim a keepsake of the smoke that vanished without a trace, he asks. The smoke of cremation has disappeared into the sky, but seeing the cloud on the mountain as its remnant, he takes it as something by which to remember the late prince.
The author, "the Monk Kakuren (lay name Takayuki)," was a monk of the late Heian period whose lay name was Takayuki. Little is known of his life.
Poem 550 of this book laments that there is not even a cloud that seems to be the smoke of the dead, while this poem sees the cloud on the mountain's rim as a keepsake of the smoke, the same conceit with the presence and absence of the cloud reversed.

First line, "yama no ha ni": "yama no ha" is the ridgeline where the mountain meets the sky. Poem 594 of this book also closes with "yama no ha no tsuki."
Second line, "tanabiku kumo ya": the interrogative "ya" closes with the attributive "ran" in the last line. It contrasts with "kumo dani mo nashi" in 550 of this book in the presence or absence of a cloud.
Third line, "yukue naku": "with no trace of where it went," modifying the fourth line.
Fourth line, "narishi keburi no": "shi" is the attributive of the past "ki," "of the smoke of cremation that vanished." Poem 575 of this book also sings of the smoke of cremation in "keburi to naramu."
Fifth line, "katami naruran": the present conjectural "ran," "could it be a keepsake?"
Author: Kakuren
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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