Mononofu no yasoujibito mo yoshinogawa tayuru koto naku tsukaetsutsu mimu

もののふの八十氏人も吉野川
絶ゆることなく仕へつつ見む

Roma-ji: Mononofu no yasoujibito mo yoshinogawa tayuru koto naku tsukaetsutsu mimu
English Translation: All the many clans
of those who serve the court,
like the Yoshino River,
never ceasing, serving on,
we will gaze upon this place.
Meaning: All the many clans of court officials, like the Yoshino River that never ceases to flow, will go on serving and gazing upon this place forever.
Commentary: Book Eighteen 4100

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem composed in advance for an imperial visit to the detached palace at Yoshino [with short poems]." "Envoy."
The poet says that the many clans who serve the court will gaze upon this place while serving unceasingly, like the flowing Yoshino River. Where the preceding poem praised the figure of the Sovereign, this one, from the side of the serving subjects, vows eternal service.
Ōtomo no Yakamochi was the son of Ōtomo no Tabito, and from 746 he served as governor of Etchū. He is believed to have played a central role in compiling the Man'yōshū, and this book has the character of a poetic diary of his years in Etchū. The headnote and left note do not name the author, but from the arrangement the poem is attributed to Yakamochi.
The wording draws on an envoy to Kakinomoto no Hitomaro's Yoshino poems, Book One, 37, "miredo akanu Yoshino no kawa no tokoname no tayuru koto naku mata kaeri mimu," continuing the tradition of court praise poetry.

First line, "mononofu no": the officials, military and civil, who serve the court; it is also used as a pillow word for "yaso," "eighty."
Second line, "yasoujibito mo": "the people of the many clans," among them Yakamochi's own Ōtomo.
Third line, "Yoshinogawa": the river flowing beside the Yoshino palace, whose unceasing current leads to "tayuru koto naku" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "tayuru koto naku": the same line as in Hitomaro's 37, drawing on a traditional phrase of Yoshino praise.
Last line, "tsukaetsutsu mimu": "tsutsu" marks continuation and "mu" intention. Where "arigayoi mesu" in the preceding poem was the Sovereign's seeing, here is the subjects' seeing, forming a pair of those who serve and the one served.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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