Hashiki kamo miko no mikoto no arigayoi meshishi Ikuji no michi wa arenikeri

はしきかも皇子の命のあり通ひ
見しし活道の道は荒れにけり

Roma-ji: Hashiki kamo miko no mikoto no arigayoi meshishi Ikuji no michi wa arenikeri
English Translation: How dear it is still!
Our prince, his highness, always
went there to and fro,
gazing out on Ikuji—
now its road has gone to waste.
Meaning: How dear! The road to Ikuji, which our prince so often traveled to gaze upon the view, has fallen into ruin.
Commentary: Book Three Elegies 479

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Six poems composed by the palace attendant Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi on the death of Prince Asaka in the second month of spring, Tenpyō 16, the year kinoe-saru" — "Envoy"
This is the first envoy to the second long poem mourning Prince Asaka. The road to Ikuji, which the prince often traveled to gaze on the view, has fallen to ruin without its master—the prince's absence seen in the neglected road. The left note to the next poem says these three were composed on the twenty-fourth day of the third month. Ikuji is thought to be a hill near the Kuni capital.
This belongs to a sequence of elegies composed by Ōtomo no Yakamochi, then a palace attendant, when Prince Asaka, son of Emperor Shōmu, died suddenly at seventeen in the spring of Tenpyō 16 (744). The prince was buried in the Wazuka hills near the Kuni capital.
The poet, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and a Nara-period official. He served as Governor of Etchū and of Inaba, among other posts, rose to Middle Counselor, and died in Enryaku 4 (785). He is thought to have been deeply involved in compiling the Man'yōshū. At the time of Prince Asaka's death he was serving him as a palace attendant.

First line "How dear it is still": hashiki means dear, and kamo is exclamatory.
Second line "our prince, his highness" is a respectful way of naming the prince.
Third line "went there to and fro": arigayoi means going there constantly.
Fourth line "gazing out on Ikuji": mesu is the honorific of miru, "to see."
Fifth line "now its road has gone to waste" has one syllable too many, seeing the prince's absence in the ruined road.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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