Au koto o kumoi no yoso ni yuku kari no tōzakareba ya koe mo kikoenu

逢ふ事を雲居のよそに行く雁の
遠ざかればや声も聞こえぬ

Roma-ji: Au koto o kumoi no yoso ni yuku kari no tōzakareba ya koe mo kikoenu
English Translation: Meeting now has gone
to a far place among the clouds,
like the wild geese flying;
is it because they've gone so far
that I cannot hear their voice?
Meaning: Like the wild geese flying off beyond the clouds, our meeting has become something far away; is it because you have drawn so far off that I cannot even hear your voice?
Commentary: Love Poems 417

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Among poems on love"
Meeting has grown as far off as the land beyond the clouds; just as the cries of geese fade as they recede across the sky, word from the beloved has ceased. The fading call of the geese is laid over the distance between the lovers.

Line 1 means "meeting," now become something distant.
Line 2 means "far away beyond the clouds," showing that meeting is out of reach.
Line 3 means "like the wild geese going," taking up the geese of the preceding poem.
Line 4: ba expresses cause and ya is an interrogative binding particle concluded in line 5: "is it because they have gone far?"
Line 5 means "not even a voice is heard," the negative nu in the attributive form answering ya.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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