Mitatashi no shima o mo ie to sumu tori mo arabi na yuki so toshi kawaru made

み立たしの島をも家と棲む鳥も
荒びな行きそ年かはるまで

Roma-ji: Mitatashi no shima o mo ie to sumu tori mo arabi na yuki so toshi kawaru made
English Translation: You birds that make
your home upon the garden isle
where he used to stand,
do not grow wild and fly away,
not until the year has turned.
Meaning: You birds that make your home on the garden isle where our prince used to stand, do not grow wild and fly away, at least until the year has turned.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 180

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twenty-three poems composed in grief by the attendants of the Prince's palace"
The speaker calls on the birds living on the garden isle where the prince once stood not to grow wild and fly away, at least until the new year.
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 tenth 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, "mitatashi no," means "where he used to stand," the same first line as the eighth poem of the sequence, 178.
The second line, "shima o mo ie to," means "making even the garden isle their home."
The third line, "sumu tori mo," means "the birds that live there too," referring to birds kept free on the pond.
The fourth line, "arabi na yuki so," is the same as the fourth line of the second poem, 172: do not grow wild and go.
The final line, "toshi kawaru made," means "until the year changes," suggesting the period of mourning and wishing that the palace keep its form at least that long.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Tachibana no shima no miya ni wa akanu kamo sada no okabe ni tonoi shi ni yuku
Next Poem: Mitatashi no shima no ariso o ima mireba oizarishi kusa oinikeru kamo