Kawakami no itsumo no hana no itsumo itsumo kimase waga seko tokijikeme ya mo

川上のいつ藻の花のいつもいつも
来ませ我が背子時じけめやも

Roma-ji: Kawakami no itsumo no hana no itsumo itsumo kimase waga seko tokijikeme ya mo
English Translation: By the riverside
flowers bloom on the itsumo;
always, and always,
come to me, my dearest one;
is any hour the wrong time
Meaning: Like the flowers of the itsumo weed along the river, always, always come to me, my love; is there any time that is not the right time?
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 491

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems by Fufuki no Toji"
Taking as its preface the flowers of the itsumo weed by the river and doubling the sound of itsumo, "always," this poem invites a lover to visit at any time. It declares that there is no hour when he should not come, frankly showing a woman's open heart.
Where the preceding poem was a passive one, thinking of a lover seen in dreams, this one actively urges him to come, and together the two poems show two sides of a longing heart.
The author, Fufuki no Toji, is a woman of whom little is known. Toji is a respectful term for the mistress of a household or an older woman, and she is said to have served Princess Tōchi.

First line, "By the riverside," is taken to mean along the river's edge; it can also mean upstream, but here it sets a waterside scene.
Second line, "flowers bloom on the itsumo," names the flowers of a weed thick in the water; the itsu of itsumo draws out itsumo, "always," in the third line, and with the first line forms a preface.
Third line, "always, and always," doubles the word to stress "at any time at all," the pivot where the preface turns to the poem's true meaning.
Fourth line, "come to me, my dearest one," uses mase, the imperative of the honorific auxiliary masu: please come. The poem breaks after this line.
Fifth line, "is any hour the wrong time," uses the adjective tokiji, "out of season," with the rhetorical meya mo: could there be a time when you should not come? Surely none.
Author: Fufuki no Toji
Source: Manyoshu
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