Haru nareba ube mo sakitaru ume no hana kimi o omou to yoi mo nenaku ni

春なればうべも咲きたる梅の花
君を思ふと夜寐も寝なくに

Roma-ji: Haru nareba ube mo sakitaru ume no hana kimi o omou to yoi mo nenaku ni
English Translation: Because it is spring,
no wonder you have blossomed,
flowers of the plum;
while I, longing after you,
cannot sleep throughout the night
Meaning: Of course you have bloomed, plum blossoms, since it is spring; yet I, thinking of you, could not sleep at night.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 831

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thirty-two poems on plum blossoms, with preface"
The poet says the plum has bloomed, naturally, because it is spring, while he could not sleep at night for thinking of it. Treating the plum as a lover, he expresses in the form of a love poem the sleepless longing with which he awaited its blooming.
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 "Governor of Iki Ita-shi Yasumaro."
The poet, Itamochi no Yasumaro, was an official serving as Governor of Iki. Reading "Ita-shi" as the Itamochi clan follows the prevailing view.

First line, "haru nareba": "because it is spring," giving the reason the plum has bloomed.
Second line, "ube mo sakitaru": "ube" expresses assent, "no wonder."
Third line, "ume no hana": placed as if addressed to the plum itself.
Fourth line, "kimi o omou to": "you" may be the plum imagined as a lover, or the host of the banquet.
Fifth line, "yoi mo nenaku ni": "i" is sleep, and "naku ni" an adversative exclamation, "though I could not." Using a love-poem convention, it closes on the depth of his feeling for the plum.
Author: Itamochi no Yasumaro
Source: Manyoshu
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