Asahi teru sada no okabe ni mureitsutsu waga naku namida yamu toki mo nashi

朝日照る佐田の岡辺に群れ居つつ
我が泣く涙やむ時もなし

Roma-ji: Asahi teru sada no okabe ni mureitsutsu waga naku namida yamu toki mo nashi
English Translation: On Sada's hillside
where the morning sun shines bright,
gathered in a throng,
the tears we weep for you, lord,
never come to an end.
Meaning: Gathered in a throng on the slopes of Sada Hill where the morning sun shines, the tears we weep never cease.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 177

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twenty-three poems composed in grief by the attendants of the Prince's palace"
Gathered on the slopes of Sada Hill in the morning sun, the attendants weep tears that never cease, grieving as they serve at the temporary shrine.
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 seventh 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, "asahi teru," means "where the morning sun shines," setting a bright scene against tears. The twenty-second poem of the sequence, 192, begins with the same line.
In the second line, "sada no okabe ni," Sada Hill lies near Mayumi Hill and is said to be where the prince's temporary shrine was placed.
The third line, "mureitsutsu," means "gathered in a crowd," picturing the attendants.
The fourth line, "waga naku namida," means "the tears we weep."
The final line, "yamu toki mo nashi," means "there is no time they stop," stating the depth of grief outright.
Source: Manyoshu
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