Toshi no ha ni haru no kitaraba kaku shi koso ume o kazashite tanoshiku nomame

年のはに春の来らばかくしこそ
梅をかざして楽しく飲まめ

Roma-ji: Toshi no ha ni haru no kitaraba kaku shi koso ume o kazashite tanoshiku nomame
English Translation: Every single year,
when the spring has come to us,
just like this, indeed,
wearing blossoms of the plum,
let us drink with merry hearts
Meaning: Every year when spring comes, let us wear plum blossoms like this and drink merrily.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 833

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thirty-two poems on plum blossoms, with preface"
The poet says that every year, when spring comes, they should wear plum blossoms like this and drink merrily. Echoing almost word for word Ki no Ohito's opening poem, 815, he wishes that this gathering might be held every year.
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 "Senior Scribe No-shi Sukunamaro"; the scribe was a record-keeper at Dazaifu, and whether "No" stands for the Ōno, Ono, or another clan is unsettled.
The poet, Noshi no Sukunamaro, was an official serving as Senior Scribe of Dazaifu.

First line, "toshi no ha ni": "every year."
Second line, "haru no kitaraba": identical to the second line of 815, consciously answering the banquet's first poem.
Third line, "kaku shi koso": also identical to 815's third line; "koso" is resolved by "me" in the last line.
Fourth line, "ume o kazashite": replaces 815's "inviting the plum" with the concrete act of wearing it in the hair.
Fifth line, "tanoshiku nomame": "let us drink merrily," closing with "me" in answer to "koso." It names the drinking more frankly than 815's "let us have our fill of joy."
Author: Noshi no Sukunamaro
Source: Manyoshu
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