Sasudake no ōmiyabito wa ima mo ka mo hitonaburi nomi konomitaruramu

さす竹の大宮人は今もかも
人なぶりのみ好みたるらむ

Roma-ji: Sasudake no ōmiyabito wa ima mo ka mo hitonaburi nomi konomitaruramu
English Translation: The courtiers
of the great palace,
even now, I wonder,
do they still delight
only in mocking others
Meaning: The courtiers of the great palace: even now, I wonder, do they still take pleasure only in mocking others?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Exchange Poems of Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome 3758

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome"
He wonders whether the courtiers still delight only in mocking others even now. It voices the bitter suspicion that he, now in exile, and the young woman left behind have become the talk and laughingstock of the court. Within a sequence of love poems, it is an unusual poem tinged with resentment toward court society. The third line of the text carries a note, "one version: ima sae ya," recording a variant third line. The note has been removed from the poem's text, and the text's own reading is followed here.
The author, Nakatomi no Yakamori, was a son of Nakatomi no Azumahito, from the Nakatomi clan in charge of the rites of the gods. He was exiled to Echizen Province for an offense, but was later pardoned and returned to the capital.
A left note reads "the above thirteen poems are by Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori"; the thirteen poems from 3754 to 3766 of this book were sent by Yakamori to the young woman from his place of exile. The latter half of this book contains sixty-three poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome. According to the book's table of contents, when Yakamori took as his wife the young woman, a lady-in-waiting of the palace storehouse office, he was exiled to Echizen Province by imperial decree. The place of exile is thought to be Ajimano in Echizen, near present-day Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture.

First line, "sasudake no": a pillow word for "ōmiyabito" (courtiers) and the like.
Second line, "ōmiyabito wa": "ōmiyabito" are the people serving at court.
Third line, "ima mo ka mo": "ka" is an interrogative binding particle resolved by the attributive "ramu": even now, still. The variant reads "ima sae ya."
Fourth line, "hitonaburi nomi": "hitonaburi" means mocking and toying with others: only that.
Fifth line, "konomitaruramu": "taru" is continuative and "ramu" conjectures a present matter out of sight: do they still delight in it, the poem ends.
Author: Nakatomi no Yakamori
Source: Manyoshu
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