Yo no naka wa tsune kaku nomi to wakarenuru kimi ni ya motona a ga koiyukamu

世間は常かくのみと別れぬる
君にやもとな我が恋ひ行かむ

Roma-ji: Yo no naka wa tsune kaku nomi to wakarenuru kimi ni ya motona a ga koiyukamu
English Translation: This world, they say,
is ever only thus,
and you have left us;
must I go on longing for you
helplessly as I journey
Meaning: Saying the world is ever thus, you have parted from us; must I go on, helplessly longing for you, as I continue my journey?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Poems of the Envoys to Silla 3690

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem with tanka composed when, on reaching the island of Iki, Yuki no Muraji Yakamaro suddenly fell victim to a plague and died"
An elegy wondering whether he must go on with the journey, helplessly longing for Yakamaro, who has parted from them saying the world is ever thus fleeting. While trying to accept the impermanence of the world, the heart cannot cut off its thoughts of the dead man. It holds the sorrow of travelers who must leave the dead behind and press on.
According to the headnote, this is one of two envoys attached to the chōka 3688 of this book, an elegy composed when, on the embassy's arrival at the island of Iki, Yuki no Muraji Yakamaro suddenly fell ill with a plague and died. The "demon sickness" was an epidemic, which some take to be the smallpox then spreading. The left note reads only "the above three are elegies," and the author is not named.

First line, "yo no naka wa": the world of human life.
Second line, "tsune kaku nomi to": that it is always only thus, expressing the impermanence of the world.
Third line, "wakarenuru": "nuru" is the attributive of the perfective "nu": who has gone away, referring to Yakamaro's death.
Fourth line, "kimi ni ya motona": "ya" is an interrogative binding particle resolved by the attributive "mu"; "motona" means helplessly, without reason.
Fifth line, "a ga koiyukamu": "koiyuku" means to go on while longing: must I continue the journey, longing for the dead, the poem ends.
Source: Manyoshu
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