Ima nomi no waza ni wa arazu inishie no hito zo masarite ne ni sae nakishi

今のみのわざにはあらずいにしへの
人ぞまさりて音にさへ泣きし

Roma-ji: Ima nomi no waza ni wa arazu inishie no hito zo masarite ne ni sae nakishi
English Translation: Not a thing only
of the present time is this;
people of the past
surpassed us in their longing,
and they even wept aloud
Meaning: Suffering for love is nothing new to our own time; the people of old felt it even more, and wept aloud.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 498

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Four poems by Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro"
Set as the poet's own answer to the question of the preceding poem, this says that suffering for love did not begin today; the people of old felt it more fiercely and wept aloud. By overlaying his grief on theirs, he seems to seek comfort for the pain of love. "Those who lived long past" in the preceding poem and "people of the past" here answer each other, making the two a pair of question and reply.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu; a master of both long and short poems, he was revered by later ages as the saint of poetry.

First line, "Not a thing only," means of the present alone, nomi being a limiting particle.
Second line, "of the present time is this," means it is not a deed of our time only; denying that weeping for love is confined to now, the poem breaks after this line.
Third line, "people of the past," repeats inishie from the first line of the preceding poem, binding the two as question and answer.
Fourth line, "surpassed us in their longing," singles out the people of old with the particle zo, meaning they surpassed us; the construction is closed by shi in the fifth line.
Fifth line, "and they even wept aloud," uses ne ni naku, "to cry aloud," with sae, "even"; shi, the attributive of the past auxiliary ki, closes the zo construction.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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