Takamato no nobe no akihagi itazura ni saki ka chiruramu miru hito nashi ni

高円の野辺の秋萩いたづらに
咲きか散るらむ見る人なしに

Roma-ji: Takamato no nobe no akihagi itazura ni saki ka chiruramu miru hito nashi ni
English Translation: In Takamato's
fields, the autumn bush clover—
does it all in vain
come to bloom and scatter now
with no one there to see?
Meaning: Does the autumn bush clover in the fields of Takamato bloom and scatter all in vain now, with no one there to see it?
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 231

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems composed in the ninth month, autumn, of the first year of Reiki, the year kinoto-u, at the time of the death of Prince Shiki, two short poems"
The poet imagines the autumn bush clover of Takamato's fields, once loved by Prince Shiki, blooming and falling in vain with no one to see it, and thinks of the flowers of a field that has lost its master.
These are elegies on the death of Prince Shiki in the ninth month of the first year of Reiki (715). The long poem 230 mourns him by asking whether the funeral torches burning on Mount Takamato are a fire set to burn the fields. Prince Shiki was a son of Emperor Tenji and the father of the later Emperor Kōnin. This is the first of the two short poems appended to that long poem. A left note says these poems appear in the Kasa no Kanamura Collection, and so the author is taken to be Kasa no Kanamura.
The author, Kasa no Kanamura, was a court poet of the reigns of Empress Genshō and Emperor Shōmu who composed many poems while attending imperial excursions.

In the first line, "takamato no," Takamato is the area east of the Nara capital where Prince Shiki's palace is said to have stood.
The second line, "nobe no akihagi," means "the autumn bush clover of the fields." In 120 by Prince Yuge in this book, bush clover that blooms and swiftly falls was a figure for the brevity of life.
The third line, "itazura ni," means "in vain, to no purpose."
In the fourth line, "saki ka chiruramu," ka is an interrogative binding particle concluding in the attributive ramu: is it blooming and falling?
The final line, "miru hito nashi ni," means "with no one to look at it," and by inversion closes on the loneliness of a masterless field.
Author: Kasa no Kanamura
Source: Manyoshu
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