Hitohi ni wa chitabi mairishi himugashi no ōki mikado o irikatenu kamo

一日には千たび参りし東の
大き御門を入りかてぬかも

Roma-ji: Hitohi ni wa chitabi mairishi himugashi no ōki mikado o irikatenu kamo
English Translation: In a single day
a thousand times I entered
through the eastern gate,
the great gate of the palace—
now I cannot bring myself to pass.
Meaning: Through the great eastern gate that I once entered a thousand times a day, I now cannot bring myself to pass.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 186

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twenty-three poems composed in grief by the attendants of the Prince's palace"
He grieves that he cannot now bring himself to pass through the great eastern gate that he once went in and out of a thousand times a day.
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 sixteenth 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, "hitohi ni wa," means "in a single day."
The second line, "chitabi mairishi," means "that I entered a thousand times," an exaggeration showing the days of close service.
The third line, "himugashi no," indicates the eastern gate of the Shima Palace, as in the fourteenth poem, 184.
The fourth line, "ōki mikado o," means "the great gate." It corresponds to "miko no mikado" in 168 by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro in this book.
In the final line, "irikatenu kamo," katenu means "cannot," and kamo is exclamatory. Against the "thousand times" of the opening lines, the depth of grief stands out.
Source: Manyoshu
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