Natsukinishi nara no miyako no areyukeba idetatsu goto ni nageki shi masaru

なつきにし奈良の都の荒れゆけば
出で立つごとに嘆きし増さる

Roma-ji: Natsukinishi nara no miyako no areyukeba idetatsu goto ni nageki shi masaru
English Translation: Long familiar, dear,
the capital of Nara
now goes to ruin,
and each time I step outside
my sorrow deepens further
Meaning: The capital of Nara, so long familiar and dear, is falling into ruin, and each time I go out and stand there my grief grows greater.
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 1049

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two envoys"
The poem says that because the dear, familiar capital of Nara is going to ruin, the poet's grief grows each time he goes out and stands looking at it. It is the second of the two envoys to the long poem immediately before it (1047), "A poem composed in sorrow for the old capital of Nara." Where the preceding poem, 1048, showed the scene of turf grass on ruined roads, this poem sings of the heart's side: the grief that swells each time that scene is seen.
The twenty-one poems from 1047 through 1067, the last poem of the book, are covered by the closing left note: "The above twenty-one poems appear in the Tanabe no Sakimaro Collection." According to this note they were taken from the Tanabe no Sakimaro Collection, and they are thought to be Sakimaro's own compositions.
The poet, Tanabe no Sakimaro, was a poet of the mid-Nara period; in Tenpyō 20 (748) he served as a clerk of the Office of Sake Brewing and acted as an envoy for the Minister of the Left, Tachibana no Moroe. He is regarded as one of the representative poets of the last phase of the Man'yōshū, carrying on the tradition of ceremonial long poems at court.

The two envoys form a pair: the preceding poem depicts the ruined scene with "on the roads the grasses grow long," while this poem sings of the grieving heart with "my sorrow deepens further," lamenting the ruin of Nara from the two sides of scene and feeling.
The first line, "Long familiar, dear," means "to which I had grown attached." The verb "natsuku" is followed by the perfective "nu" and the past "ki," expressing the long years of living there in familiarity.
The second line, "the capital of Nara," is the same phrase that the three poems of uncertain authorship (1044 through 1046 of this book) each placed in their fourth line.
The third line, "now goes to ruin," means "because it is falling to ruin," showing that the decay is still going on.
The fourth line, "and each time I step outside," means every time he goes out and stands there, expressing the repeated occasions of seeing the capital.
The final line, "my sorrow deepens further," means "my grief grows all the more." "Shi" is an emphatic particle that heightens the deepening of grief.
Author: Tanabe no Sakimaro
Source: Manyoshu
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