Sasanami ya Ōmi no miya wa na nomi shite kasumi tanabiki miyakimori nashi - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ささなみや近江の宮は名のみして
霞たなびき宮木守なし

Roma-ji: Sasanami ya Ōmi no miya wa na nomi shite kasumi tanabiki miyakimori nashi
English Translation: At Sasanami,
the palace of Ōmi
is but a name now;
the spring haze trails over it,
and no one guards its trees.
Meaning: The palace of Ōmi at Sasanami remains in name only; the haze trails over it, and there is no one to guard its trees.
Commentary: Book Eight Miscellaneous Poems I 483

Headnote: "On seeing the ruined palace at Ōtsu"
The poet says that the palace of Ōmi remains in name only, with haze trailing over it and no one to guard its trees. The headnote shows he composed it on seeing the ruined site of the palace at Ōtsu, Emperor Tenji's capital. Portraying a former capital that has fallen to ruin with only its name remaining through trailing haze and palace trees without a keeper, he laments the transience of past glory. Like the ruined Kawara-in of 461 and the decayed Nagara Bridge of 468 in this book, it sings of the traces of former splendor.
The author, written as Hitomaro, is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A court poet of the Asuka period, he is revered as the sage of poetry and the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. The Shūishū includes many Man'yōshū poems under his name.
Hitomaro's poems in the Man'yōshū on the ruined capital of Ōmi are also famous as poems grieving over the ruined palace at Ōtsu.

First line, "sasanami ya," an old name for the southwest shore of Lake Biwa in Ōmi, is used as a pillow word introducing Ōmi.
Second line, "Ōmi no miya wa," means "the palace of Ōtsu in Ōmi."
Third line, "na nomi shite," means "remaining only in name."
Fourth line, "kasumi tanabiki," means "the haze trailing," conveying the deserted palace site.
Final line, "miyakimori nashi," means "there is no keeper of the palace trees," showing a capital site left to fall into ruin.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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