Ochitagitsu Katakaigawa no taenu goto ima miru hito mo yamazu kayowamu

落ちたぎつ片貝川の絶えぬごと
今見る人もやまず通はむ

Roma-ji: Ochitagitsu Katakaigawa no taenu goto ima miru hito mo yamazu kayowamu
English Translation: As the Katakai,
plunging and seething down,
never ceases flowing,
so shall we who see it now
keep coming here unceasing
Meaning: Just as the Katakai River, plunging and churning, never ceases, so we who see it now shall keep coming here without end.
Commentary: Book Seventeen 4005

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: the quatrain of "A poem respectfully composed in reply to the rhapsody on Mount Tachiyama, with two quatrains"
As the plunging Katakai never ceases, so those who see Tachiyama now will keep coming without end—a poem vowing praise of the mountain. This is one of two tanka attached to the chōka Ikenushi composed on the twenty-eighth day of the fourth month of 747 in reply to Yakamochi's "Rhapsody on Mount Tachiyama." The chōka praises Tachiyama, towering in the morning sun and thrusting through the thousandfold white clouds toward heaven, where snow lies without distinction of winter or summer and the sacred rocks have stood for untold ages, while in the clear gorge where waters plunge from its peaks mist rises every morning and clouds trail every evening; it closes by vowing to tell of it for ten thousand ages, the sound of its waters clear, as long as the river does not cease. Corresponding to Yakamochi's envoy, 4002, it expresses eternal praise through the unceasing flow of the Katakai.
The poet, Ōtomo no Ikenushi, served as Secretary of Etchū under Governor Yakamochi. A member of the same clan and well versed in Chinese verse and prose, he exchanged many poems and letters with Yakamochi during the Etchū years.
The left note reads, "The above is Secretary Ōtomo no Sukune Ikenushi's reply (twenty-eighth day of the fourth month)."

First line, "ochitagitsu": water plunging down and seething, the same word as in "the clear gorge where waters plunge and seethe" in the chōka.
Second line, "Katakaigawa no": taking up "Katakai no kawa no," the first line of Yakamochi's 4002.
Third line, "taenu goto": "as it never ceases," answering "tayuru koto naku" in 4002.
Fourth line, "ima miru hito mo": "we who see it now."
Fifth line, "yamazu kayowamu": "we shall keep coming without end," corresponding to "arigayoi mimu" in 4002 and closing the exchange in praise of Tachiyama.
Author: Ōtomo no Ikenushi
Source: Manyoshu
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