Kumo no ue ni nareni shi mono o ashitazu no au koto kata ni oriinuru kana - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

雲の上に馴れにしものを葦鶴の
あふことかたに下りゐぬるかな

Roma-ji: Kumo no ue ni nareni shi mono o ashitazu no au koto kata ni oriinuru kana
English Translation: Above the clouds once
I had grown so used to life,
yet like the reed-crane
I have alighted on the flats
where meeting is hard indeed
Meaning: I was so used to life above the clouds, yet like a crane among the reeds I have come down to the tidal flats, where meeting you is hard.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 601

Long accustomed to life above the clouds at court, the poet has come down, like a crane from the reeds alighting on the tidal flats, and withdrawn from the palace, so that meeting is now difficult. The loneliness of one who has left court service and can no longer easily meet those at the palace is overlaid with a crane coming down from the sky to the flats.
Kumo no ue, above the clouds, is a word for the court, and like poems 529, 570 and 571 in this book, the poem uses clouds for the court and laments distance from it.

First line, 'kumo no ue ni', means above the clouds, standing for the court.
Second line, 'nareni shi mono o', means though I had grown used to it, the perfective nu and past ki followed by the concessive mono o.
Third line, 'ashitazu no', means of the crane among the reeds, overlaying the flying crane with the poet once at court.
Fourth line, 'au koto kata ni', is a pivot in which kata means both hard, of meeting, and the tidal flats where the crane alights, left in kana. It is a related word to ashitazu in the third line.
Final line, 'oriinuru kana', means I have come down, oriiru overlaying the crane alighting and withdrawing from court service. The attributive of the perfective nu is followed by the exclamatory kana.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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