Sasanami no ōyamamori wa ta ga tame ka yama ni shime yuu kimi mo aranaku ni

楽浪の大山守は誰がためか
山に標結ふ君もあらなくに

Roma-ji: Sasanami no ōyamamori wa ta ga tame ka yama ni shime yuu kimi mo aranaku ni
English Translation: At Sasanami,
for whom do the mountain wardens
now stretch their ropes
across the hills to guard them,
when our lord is here no more?
Meaning: For whom do the wardens of the hills at Sasanami still stretch their sacred ropes across the mountain, when our lord is here no more?
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 154

Headnote: "A poem by Lady Ishikawa, Consort"
Seeing the wardens of the imperial hills still stretching their ropes, she laments the emptiness of guarding a mountain whose master is gone.
It is placed among the Ōmi-court elegies mourning the death of Emperor Tenji.
The author, Lady Ishikawa, was a consort of Emperor Tenji said to have come from the Soga clan, but there is no settled view of who she was. She was probably so called because the Soga also used the name Ishikawa. Bunin, "consort," was a rank for imperial wives below empress and princess-consort.

The first line, "sasanami no," names the region along the southwest shore of Lake Biwa where the Ōmi capital stood.
The second line, "ōyamamori wa," means "the wardens of the imperial hills."
In the third line, "ta ga tame ka," ka is an interrogative binding particle concluding in the attributive yuu of the fourth line.
The fourth line, "yama ni shime yuu," means "stretching sacred ropes on the hills." As if answering "shime yuwamashi o" in 151 by Princess Nukata, the act of stretching a rope returns here.
In the final line, "kimi mo aranaku ni," naku ni means "though ... not": when our lord is no more. The final line of 163 by Princess Ōku in this book is identical.
Author: Lady Ishikawa, Consort
Source: Manyoshu
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