Yo o sukuu ato wa mukashi ni kawaranedo hajime tateken toki o shi zo omou - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

世を救ふ跡は昔に変はらねど
始め立てけん時をしぞ思ふ

Roma-ji: Yo o sukuu ato wa mukashi ni kawaranedo hajime tateken toki o shi zo omou
English Translation: The traces he left,
he who came to save the world,
are as they were of old,
yet the time he first raised it
is what my thoughts turn to
Meaning: The traces of one who saved the world are unchanged from long ago, yet it is the time when he first raised this temple that I find myself thinking of.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1253

Headnote: "Composed on the theme of recalling the past at an old temple, at the time of an imperial visit to Tennōji"
At the time of an imperial visit to Shitennōji, he composed this on the theme of recalling the past at an old temple. Shitennōji is said to have been founded by Prince Shōtoku. The traces of one who saved the world are unchanged from long ago, yet I think of the time when he first built it, he says. The temple that saves people stands as it always has, but his thoughts go back to the distant day when the prince first raised it, and the poem dwells on the time of its founding.
The author, "Fujiwara no Sadanaga Ason," was a son of Fujiwara no Mitsufusa who served Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa as a close attendant. He is a different person from Jakuren, whose lay name was the same.
The next poem, 1254, was also composed on a visit to Tennōji, so two poems on Tennōji stand side by side.

First line, "yo o sukuu": "who saves the world," Prince Shōtoku's resolve to save the people.
Second line, "ato wa mukashi ni": "ato" is the temple as it stands and the traces left by the prince.
Third line, "kawaranedo": "ne" is the perfective form of the negative "zu" and "do" an adversative conjunctive particle.
Fourth line, "hajime tateken": "ken," the attributive of the conjectural past "kemu," means "when he must have first built it."
Fifth line, "toki o shi zo omou": "shi" is an emphatic adverbial particle and "zo" an emphatic binding particle closing with the attributive "omou." It takes up "recalling the past" in the headnote.
Author: Fujiwara no Sadanaga
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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