Kaku nomi ya ikizuki oramu aratama no kieyuku toshi no kagiri shirazute

かくのみや息づき居らむあらたまの
来経行く年の限り知らずて

Roma-ji: Kaku nomi ya ikizuki oramu aratama no kieyuku toshi no kagiri shirazute
English Translation: Is it always thus
that I must go on sighing,
not knowing the end
of the years that come and go,
the ever-renewing years?
Meaning: Must I go on sighing like this forever, not knowing when the coming and passing years will end?
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 881

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems daring to set out my private feelings"
The poet laments whether he must spend endless years sighing like this. He expresses the melancholy of provincial life with no end to his term in sight, along with the flow of the years.
"Daring to set out my private feelings" in the headnote means he ventures to speak of personal wishes, following the farewell poems. The left note says they were respectfully presented by Yamanoue no Okura, Governor of Chikuzen, on the sixth day of the twelfth month of Tenpyō 2.
The poet, Yamanoue no Okura, was an official who went to Tang China as a junior secretary with the embassy appointed in Taihō 1. After his return he served as Governor of Hōki and in the household of the Crown Prince, and late in the Jinki era he was posted to Tsukushi as Governor of Chikuzen. He is known for poems rooted in everyday life, on the sufferings of human existence, love for family, and poverty, written against a background of learning in Chinese classics and Buddhist scripture.

First line, "kaku nomi ya": the question particle "ya" is answered by "mu" in the second line.
Second line, "ikizuki oramu": "ikizuku" means to sigh; the poem breaks here.
Third line, "aratama no": a pillow word for year.
Fourth line, "kieyuku toshi no": "of the years that come and pass."
Fifth line, "kagiri shirazute": "not knowing their end," the inversion leaving the lament of an unseen future for last.
Author: Yamanoue no Okura
Source: Manyoshu
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