Sasanami no shiga sazarenami shikushiku ni tsune ni to kimi ga omohoserikeru

楽浪の志賀さざれ波しくしくに
常にと君が思ほせりける

Roma-ji: Sasanami no shiga sazarenami shikushiku ni tsune ni to kimi ga omohoserikeru
English Translation: At Sasanami,
as the ripples at Shiga
come in wave on wave,
so always, forever, did
my lord wish that things might be.
Meaning: Like the ripples at Shiga in Sasanami that lap the shore again and again, my lord wished again and again that things might always stay as they were.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 206

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems composed by Okisome no Azumahito at the time of the death of Prince Yuge, and another short poem"
Like the ripples at Shiga lapping the shore again and again, the prince had wished that things might always remain as they were; the poem thinks of that unfulfilled wish.
These are elegies Okisome no Azumahito composed on the death of Prince Yuge, an envoy and a further short poem appended to the long poem 204. Prince Yuge was a son of Emperor Tenmu and died in the third year of Emperor Monmu's reign (699). This is the short poem appended after the envoy.
The author, Okisome no Azumahito, is otherwise unknown; he appears to have served Prince Yuge.

The first line, "sasanami no," names the region along the southwest shore of Lake Biwa. Poem 154 by Lady Ishikawa in this book begins with the same line.
The preface runs through the second line, "shiga sazarenami," and from the ripples lapping again and again leads to shikushiku ni. Together with "shiga no karasaki" in 152 of this book, the waterside of Shiga is sung in elegy.
The third line, "shikushiku ni," means "again and again, ceaselessly."
The fourth line, "tsune ni to kimi ga," means "that it be forever, my lord," with kimi referring to Prince Yuge.
In the final line, "omohoserikeru," omohosu is an honorific of omou, ri is stative, and keru is the attributive of the exclamatory keri: so he wished, closing with lingering feeling.
Author: Okisome no Azumabito
Source: Manyoshu
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