Miyoshino no ōkawa no he no fujinami no nami ni omowaba waga koime ya wa - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

三吉野の大川のへの藤波の
なみに思はば我が恋ひめやは

Roma-ji: Miyoshino no ōkawa no he no fujinami no nami ni omowaba waga koime ya wa
English Translation: In fair Yoshino,
by the banks of the great stream,
wisteria waves—
were my love but ordinary,
would I long for you like this?
Meaning: Like the waves of wisteria by the great river of Yoshino—if my feelings for you were only ordinary, would I be yearning for you like this?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 699

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
From the sound "nami" in "fujinami" (wisteria waves) by the Yoshino River, the poem draws out "nami" (ordinary), declaring that it is because the feeling is no ordinary one that the longing is so great. With a lovely wisteria scene as its preface, it asserts the depth of love through a rhetorical question.
Following "shinu to zo tada ni iu bekarikeru" in the preceding poem, it presses the depth of love's pain from another angle.

The first line, "Miyoshino no," refers to Yoshino in Yamato, "mi" being an honorific prefix.
The second line, "ōkawa no he no," means "by the banks of the great river," referring to the Yoshino River.
The third line, "fujinami no," likens wisteria clusters swaying in the wind to waves; up to here the lines form a preface to the homophonous "nami" in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "nami ni omowaba," means "if I loved you in an ordinary way," a hypothesis, with "nami" echoing the "waves" of the third line.
The final line, "waga koime ya wa," means "would I long like this? Surely not," closing with the rhetorical "ya wa."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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