Sasanami no kunitsu mikami no urasabite aretaru miyako mireba kanashi mo

楽浪の国つ御神のうらさびて
荒れたる都見れば悲しも

Roma-ji: Sasanami no kunitsu mikami no urasabite aretaru miyako mireba kanashi mo
English Translation: At Sasanami,
the gods who guard the land have
grown desolate at heart;
seeing this capital in ruins,
how full of sorrow I am!
Meaning: At Sasanami the gods of the land have grown desolate at heart, and when I look upon the ruined capital, sorrow overwhelms me.
Commentary: Book One Miscellaneous Poems 33

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem composed by Takechi no Furuhito, grieving over the old capital of Ōmi (one text says Takechi no Muraji Kurohito)"
Seeing the capital's ruin as the result of the land's gods growing desolate and weak, the poet voices his sorrow at the sight of it. In ancient times a land's prosperity was believed to depend on the power of the gods who ruled it, and taking the capital's decay as the gods' decline reflects the faith of the age. Paired with the preceding poem, it deepens the mourning for the old capital of Ōmi.
Takechi no Kurohito was a poet of the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu whose rank and career are unknown. Many of his poems come from royal journeys, and he excelled at landscape poems that quietly gaze on the loneliness of travel.

The first line, Sasanami no, is the same place name as the third line of the preceding poem, naming the land of the old capital.
The second line, kunitsu mikami, means the gods who rule the land; tsu is an old particle meaning "of." It brings the local gods into view.
In the third line, ura means heart and sabu to grow desolate or decline: "the gods' hearts have grown desolate." Their decline is presented as the cause of the capital's ruin.
In the fourth line, taru is the attributive of the perfective-continuative tari: "the capital that has fallen to ruin."
In the last line, mo is an exclamatory particle: "how sad it is to see." Closing on nearly the same words as the preceding poem, it makes plain the correspondence between the two.
Author: Takechi no Kurohito
Source: Manyoshu
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