Waga seko ga furue no sato no Asuka ni wa chidori naku nari tsuma machikanete

我が背子が古家の里の明日香には
千鳥鳴くなり妻待ちかねて

Roma-ji: Waga seko ga furue no sato no Asuka ni wa chidori naku nari tsuma machikanete
English Translation: Where my dear friend's home,
his old house, stands in the village
of Asuka now,
I can hear the plovers cry,
waiting for their mates in vain.
Meaning: In Asuka, the village where my friend's old house still stands, I hear the plovers crying, weary of waiting for their mates.
Commentary: Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 268

Headnote: "A poem on the old homeland by Prince Nagaya"
Written after the capital had moved away from Asuka, the poem remembers the old capital. In Asuka, where a dear friend's former home remains, plovers cry as they wait in vain for their mates, and the loneliness of a homeland left behind is entrusted to their voices. A left note asks whether it was composed after the court moved from Asuka to the Fujiwara palace.
The poet, Prince Nagaya, was a grandson of Emperor Tenmu and son of Prince Takechi. He rose to Minister of the Left but was driven to take his own life in the Nagaya Incident of Jinki 6 (729).

First line "Where my dear friend's home": seko is a term for a close man, apparently a friend who had lived in Asuka.
Second line "his old house, stands in the village": furue is a house once lived in.
Third line "of Asuka now": Asuka was the site of the palaces before the Fujiwara capital.
Fourth line "I can hear the plovers cry": nari is an auxiliary of inference by sound—their voices are heard. The sentence breaks here.
Fifth line "waiting for their mates in vain": inversion gives the reason for their crying afterward, overlaying the loneliness of the deserted old capital.
Author: Prince Nagaya
Source: Manyoshu
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