Ōkimi no mikoto ni sareba chichihaha o iwaibe to okite maidekinishi o

大君の命にされば父母を
斎瓮と置きて参ゐ出来にしを

Roma-ji: Ōkimi no mikoto ni sareba chichihaha o iwaibe to okite maidekinishi o
English Translation: Since it is the command
of our great lord, my father
and mother I left
at home beside the sacred jars,
and so I have come away
Meaning: Because it was my lord's command, I left my father and mother at home with the sacred jars and came to serve.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4393

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."
Because it was my lord's command, I left my father and mother with the sacred jars and came: the poem states the circumstances of his departure. It is the tenth poem from Shimōsa. The iwaibe was a sacred jar for honoring the gods, set up at home to pray for a traveler's safety. The poem conveys both the resolve of obeying the command and his feelings for the parents left behind. Sareba is a dialect form of areba.
The author, Sasabe no Hiroshima, was a guard from Yūki District in Shimōsa; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "ōkimi no," recurs in the guards' poems, naming the source of the command.
The second line, "mikoto ni sareba," "since it is a command," gives the reason for leaving.
The third line, "chichihaha o," names the parents left behind.
The fourth line, "iwaibe to okite," "leaving them with the sacred jars," suggests his parents setting up jars to pray for his safety.
The closing line, "maidekinishi o," ends in the exclamatory o: so I have come to serve.
Author: Sasabe no Hiroshima
Source: Manyoshu
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