Yamabuki no tachiyosoitaru yamashimizu kumi ni yukamedo michi no shiranaku

山吹の立ちよそひたる山清水
汲みに行かめど道の知らなく

Roma-ji: Yamabuki no tachiyosoitaru yamashimizu kumi ni yukamedo michi no shiranaku
English Translation: Yellow kerria
stands adorning the clear spring
high among the hills—
I would go to draw its water,
but I do not know the way.
Meaning: Yellow kerria blossoms stand adorning the clear mountain spring; I would go there to draw its water, but I do not know the way.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 158

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems composed by Prince Takechi at the time of the death of Princess Tōchi"
He laments that he would go to draw water from the mountain spring adorned with kerria blossoms, but does not know the way. The yellow kerria and the spring suggest the Yellow Springs where the dead go, and the poem is understood to express the grief of wanting to visit the dead princess but having no road to her.
According to the headnote, these are three poems Prince Takechi composed when Princess Tōchi died, under the section heading "the reign of the Emperor who ruled from the Kiyomihara Palace in Asuka." Princess Tōchi was the daughter of Emperor Tenmu and Princess Nukata and had been the consort of Prince Ōtomo. A left note, citing the Nihon shoki, records that in the fourth month of the seventh year of Tenmu's reign she was suddenly taken ill and died in the palace. The first of the three, 156, contains lines that cannot be read with certainty and is therefore not treated here. This is the third of the three.
The author, Prince Takechi, was the eldest son of Emperor Tenmu. He led the army with distinction in the Jinshin War and became Chancellor of the Realm under Empress Jitō.

The first line, "yamabuki no," names the kerria with its yellow flowers, recalling the "yellow" of the Yellow Springs.
The second line, "tachiyosoitaru," means "standing in bloom as adornment."
The third line, "yamashimizu," a mountain spring, is said to suggest the Yellow Springs when joined with the kerria.
In the fourth line, "kumi ni yukamedo," me is the perfective form of mu and do is concessive: though I would go to draw it.
In the final line, "michi no shiranaku," naku is the nominalized form of the negative zu: that I do not know the way. As with "yamaji shirazu mo" in 208 by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro in this book, the heart that seeks the dead in the mountains is expressed as not knowing the path.
Author: Prince Takechi
Source: Manyoshu
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