Wagimoko ni koitsutsu arazu wa akihagi no sakite chirinuru hana ni aramashi o

我妹子に恋ひつつあらずは秋萩の
咲きて散りぬる花にあらましを

Roma-ji: Wagimoko ni koitsutsu arazu wa akihagi no sakite chirinuru hana ni aramashi o
English Translation: Rather than go on
longing for you, my beloved,
I would sooner be
the flower of autumn bush clover
that blooms and then scatters.
Meaning: Rather than go on longing for you, my love, I would sooner be a bush clover flower of autumn that blooms and then is gone.
Commentary: Book Two Love Poems 120

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Four poems by Prince Yuge in longing for Princess Ki"
Rather than endure the pain of unending love, he laments, he would sooner vanish like the autumn bush clover that blooms and swiftly falls.
According to the headnote, these are four poems Prince Yuge composed in longing for Princess Ki. Princess Ki was a daughter of Emperor Tenmu and the prince's half-sister. The sequence moves from a wish that their love flow on unhindered, to a lament that he would rather scatter like a flower, to a resolve to seize the moment, and finally to a lament of wasting away with love. This is the second; its authorship follows the headnote of the sequence.
The author, Prince Yuge, was a son of Emperor Tenmu; his mother was Princess Ōe, a daughter of Emperor Tenji. He was the full younger brother of Prince Naga.

The first line, "wagimoko ni," means "for you, my beloved," referring to Princess Ki.
The second line, "koitsutsu arazu wa," means "rather than go on longing," the same phrase as in 86 by Empress Iwa no Hime and 115 by Princess Tajima in this book.
The third line, "akihagi no," means "of the autumn bush clover."
In the fourth line, "sakite chirinuru," nuru is the attributive of the perfective nu: blooming and soon scattered, an image of life's brevity.
In the final line, "hana ni aramashi o," mashi is counterfactual: would that I were such a flower. Like "shinamashi mono o" in 86, it weighs the pain of love against vanishing.
Author: Prince Yuge
Source: Manyoshu
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