Tsukuhi ya wa sugu wa yukedomo amoshishi ga tama no sugata wa wasure senau mo

月日やは過ぐは行けども母父が
玉の姿は忘れせなふも

Roma-ji: Tsukuhi ya wa sugu wa yukedomo amoshishi ga tama no sugata wa wasure senau mo
English Translation: Though the months and days
pass and go by one by one
mother's and father's
forms, as precious as jewels,
I can never once forget
Meaning: Though the months and days go by, the jewel-like forms of my mother and father I can never forget.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4378

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."
Though months and days go by, the jewel-like forms of my mother and father I cannot forget: the poem sings of love for his parents that time does not fade. It is the sixth poem from Shimotsuke, and as if answering the preceding poem's likening of his mother to a jewel, it praises his parents' "jewel forms." Tsukuhi for tsukihi is a dialect form, and senau uses an eastern negative.
The author, Nakatomibe no Tarikuni, is recorded as a regular guard from Tsuga District in Shimotsuke; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "tsukuhi ya wa," "the months and days," sets the flow of time as the topic.
The second line, "sugu wa yukedomo," "though they pass and go," turns concessively to the lower half.
The third line, "amoshishi ga," "of mother and father," again names the mother first.
The fourth line, "tama no sugata wa," "their jewel forms," takes up the "jewel" of the preceding poem.
The closing line, "wasure senau mo," "I cannot forget," uses nau, an eastern negative auxiliary.
Author: Nakatomibe no Tarikuni
Source: Manyoshu
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