Haru sareba mazu saku yado no ume no hana hitori mitsutsu ya haruhi kurasamu

春さればまづ咲くやどの梅の花
独り見つつや春日暮らさむ

Roma-ji: Haru sareba mazu saku yado no ume no hana hitori mitsutsu ya haruhi kurasamu
English Translation: When the spring comes round,
first of all to bloom, the plum
in this garden here —
shall I gaze on it alone
and so while away the spring day?
Meaning: The plum that is the first to bloom in this garden when spring comes: shall I spend the long spring day gazing at it all alone?
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 818

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thirty-two poems on plum blossoms, with preface"
The poet asks whether he should spend the spring day gazing alone at the plum that blooms first of all. The "ya" is usually taken as rhetorical, meaning "let us all enjoy it together," but some read the poem as sympathy for the loneliness of the host, Tabito, who had lost his wife. Using the word "alone" in a banquet poem lends it a shadow characteristic of Okura.
This is one of the thirty-two poems of the Plum Blossom Banquet, held on the thirteenth day of the first month of Tenpyō 2, when officials of Dazaifu and provincial governors of Kyushu gathered at the residence of the Governor-General Ōtomo no Tabito and composed poems on the plum trees in his garden. The Chinese preface describes how, in the auspicious first month of early spring, the air was fine and the breeze gentle, the plums opened white like face powder before a mirror, and the orchids gave off a scent like a perfume sachet; it is also famous as the source of the era name Reiwa. The preface closes by proposing that, just as Chinese poetry has its pieces on falling plum blossoms, the company should compose short poems on the garden plums. The poem is signed "Yamanoue, Governor of Chikuzen."
The poet, Yamanoue no Okura, was an official who went to Tang China as a junior secretary with the embassy appointed in Taihō 1. After his return he served as Governor of Hōki and in the household of the Crown Prince, and late in the Jinki era he was posted to Tsukushi as Governor of Chikuzen. He is known for poems rooted in everyday life, on the sufferings of human existence, love for family, and poverty, written against a background of learning in Chinese classics and Buddhist scripture.

First line, "haru sareba": "when spring comes"; "saru" means a season's arrival.
Second line, "mazu saku yado no": the plum's nature of blooming ahead of spring; "yado" is the grounds of a house.
Third line, "ume no hana": the theme of the banquet, rounding off the upper lines.
Fourth line, "hitori mitsutsu ya": the particle "ya" is answered by "mu" in the last line. Read rhetorically, as is usual, it means "shall I look at it alone? No, let us all look together."
Fifth line, "haruhi kurasamu": "shall I pass the long spring day," closing in answer to "ya."
Author: Yamanoue no Okura
Source: Manyoshu
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