Ametsuchi to tomo ni oemu to omoitsutsu tsukaematsurishi kokoro tagainu

天地とともに終へむと思ひつつ
仕へまつりし心違ひぬ

Roma-ji: Ametsuchi to tomo ni oemu to omoitsutsu tsukaematsurishi kokoro tagainu
English Translation: With heaven and earth
I thought to see my service through,
and so I served you,
yet now the heart with which I served
has come to go astray.
Meaning: I served you thinking I would stay in your service as long as heaven and earth endure, yet the hope of my heart has now gone astray.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 176

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twenty-three poems composed in grief by the attendants of the Prince's palace"
The speaker had meant to serve for as long as heaven and earth endured, but that resolve has been cut off by the prince's death.
According to the headnote, these are twenty-three poems composed in grief by the attendants who served in Prince Kusakabe's palace. A left note, citing the Nihon shoki, records that the prince died in the fourth month of the third year of Empress Jitō's reign (689). The sequence takes up, scene by scene, the laments of the attendants: the garden and ponds of the Shima Palace bereft of their master, and the night watches they kept on the hills of Mayumi and Sada where the prince lay in state. This is the sixth poem of the sequence.
The authors were the attendants who served in Prince Kusakabe's palace, and their individual names have not come down to us. Toneri were officials who served close to the Emperor and members of the imperial family as guards and aides. One theory holds that Kakinomoto no Hitomaro composed the poems in the attendants' voice, but this is not settled.

The first line, "ametsuchi to," means "together with heaven and earth," an image of eternity.
In the second line, "tomo ni oemu to," mu expresses intention: to end my days together with them.
In the third line, "omoitsutsu," tsutsu marks continuation: all the while thinking so.
The fourth line, "tsukaematsurishi," means "the service I have humbly given."
In the final line, "kokoro tagainu," tagau means for things to go against one's hopes, and nu is perfective: the intention of my heart has come to nothing.
Source: Manyoshu
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