Chichihaha ga kashira kakinade saku are te iishi ketoba ze wasurekanetsuru

父母が頭掻き撫で幸くあれて
言ひし言葉ぜ忘れかねつる

Roma-ji: Chichihaha ga kashira kakinade saku are te iishi ketoba ze wasurekanetsuru
English Translation: My father and mother
stroking my head with their hands
said "Fare well, be safe":
those words that they spoke to me
I find I cannot forget
Meaning: My father and mother stroked my head and said, "Be safe and well." Those words I cannot forget.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4346

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
The words my father and mother spoke as they stroked my head, "Be safe," I cannot forget: the poem recalls his parents at the moment of departure. According to the left note, it closes the poems presented by Fuse no Hitonushi, escort officer of Suruga. With only a stroke of the head and a few words, it portrays a parent's love, and it is among the best known of the frontier guard poems. Te in saku are te stands for to, and ketoba ze for kotoba zo.
The author, Hasetsukabe no Inamaro, was a guard from Suruga; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "chichihaha ga," names the parents who spoke.
The second line, "kashira kakinade," the gesture of stroking his head, shows parents cherishing him as if he were still a small child.
The third line, "saku are te," "be safe," quotes his parents' words directly.
The fourth line, "iishi ketoba ze," uses ze, a dialect form of zo, resolved by the attributive tsuru in the last line.
The closing line, "wasurekanetsuru," "I cannot forget," answers zo with the attributive form. Like "wasure se no kamo" two poems before, it sings of being unable to forget his parents.
Author: Hasetsukabe no Inamaro
Source: Manyoshu
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