Waga inochi mo tsune ni aranu ka mukashi mishi Kisa no ogawa o yukite mimu tame

我が命も常にあらぬか昔見し
象の小川を行きて見むため

Roma-ji: Waga inochi mo tsune ni aranu ka mukashi mishi Kisa no ogawa o yukite mimu tame
English Translation: Would that my life too
might endure unchanging on!
The one I saw of old,
the Kisa brook—so that I
might go and see it once more.
Meaning: If only my life too could last forever—so that I might go once more to see the Kisa brook I saw long ago.
Commentary: Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 332

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Five poems by the Governor-General Lord Ōtomo"
This is the second of the five poems of the Governor-General Lord Ōtomo. Wishing to see again the Kisa brook in Yoshino that he once saw, he prays that his life may go on forever. Taking up the lament of age in the preceding poem, his longing for home appears as yearning for a particular scene.
The five poems of the Governor-General Lord Ōtomo form a sequence longing for the Nara capital and for his home, placed after the poems of Ono no Oyu and Ōtomo no Yotsuna.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was a son of Ōtomo no Yasumaro. He served as Middle Counselor and Governor-General of Dazaifu before rising to Great Counselor, and died in Tenpyō 3 (731). Steeped in Chinese letters, he was at the center of a poetic circle with Yamanoue no Okura and others while serving in Tsukushi.

First line "Would that my life too" has one syllable too many.
Second line "might endure unchanging on": nu ka, a negative question, expresses a wish. The sentence breaks here.
Third line "The one I saw of old" means seen long ago.
Fourth line "the Kisa brook" flows down from Mount Kisa in Yoshino.
Fifth line "so that I might go and see it once more" gives by inversion the reason for his wish to live on.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito
Source: Manyoshu
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