Fuse okite ware wa koinomu azamukazu tada ni iyukite amaji shirashime

布施置きて我れは祈ひ祷むあざむかず
直に率行きて天道知らしめ

Roma-ji: Fuse okite ware wa koinomu azamukazu tada ni iyukite amaji shirashime
English Translation: Offerings laid down,
I pray to you with all my heart:
do not lead him astray,
take him by the straightest path
and show him the road to heaven
Meaning: Laying down offerings, I pray: do not lead him astray, but take him straight along and show him the road to heaven.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 906

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems yearning for a boy named Furuhi: one long, two short"
The poet, laying down offerings, prays that his child be taken straight, without being misled, and shown the road to heaven. Following the preceding plea to the messenger of the underworld, it expresses the wish for the child's rebirth through offerings to the Buddha, and closes Book Five.
These poems mourn the death of a boy named Furuhi and consist of one long poem and two tanka. The long poem tells how Furuhi, dearer than the seven treasures the world prizes, would never leave his parents' bedside in the morning and would ask at night to sleep between them, yet fell unexpectedly ill and, despite prayers to the gods of heaven and earth, at last lost his life; it is told with anguished grief. The left note says that the author is unknown but, because the style resembles that of Yamanoue no Okura, the poems were placed here.
Where the book opened, in 793, with grief at the emptiness of the world, it closes with the prayer of a parent who has lost a child, so that beginning and end answer each other in the theme of bereavement.

First line, "fuse okite": laying down offerings for the Buddha or monks, a Buddhist rite of devotion.
Second line, "ware wa koinomu": "koinomu" means to pray to gods and buddhas; the poem breaks here, taking up the long poem's "though I prayed."
Third line, "azamukazu": "without deceiving, without leading astray."
Fourth line, "tada ni iyukite": "taking him straight along."
Fifth line, "amaji shirashime": "amaji" is the road to heaven, and "shime" is a causative imperative: show him the way. Against the underground "shitae" of the preceding poem, it prays for the road upward, forming a contrast of below and above.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Wakakereba michiyuki shiraji mai wa semu shitae no tsukai oite tōrase
Next Poem: Toshinoha ni kakumo miteshika miyoshino no kiyoki kōchi no tagitsu shiranami