waka on Kagamiyama mountain in Karatsu

waka, originally uploaded by furyu_man18.

The Waka inscribed in this monument says “How sad she was...no matter how many times she waved her sleeve, she couldn’t stop the departure of the vessel." -- By Yamonoueno Okura. ;The woman is Sayohime.Her husband boarding the vessel as a warrior is leaving for a　country for war. She keeps seeing her husband off waving her sleeve even after the ship disappeared.

This waka is included in Manyoushu.
Manyosyu is the oldest anthology of Waka in Japan’s history. It was compiled around the 7th and 8th centuries. It consists of 20 scrolls, including more than 4,500 short poems written by the imperial family, aristocrats, a lower class of anonymous warriors called Sakimori that were dispatched to Kyushu, and commoners