Uguisu no machikate ni seshi ume ga hana chirazu arikoso omou ko ga tame

鴬の待ちかてにせし梅が花
散らずありこそ思ふ子がため

Roma-ji: Uguisu no machikate ni seshi ume ga hana chirazu arikoso omou ko ga tame
English Translation: For which the warbler
waited, scarcely able to wait,
O blossoms of plum,
do not scatter, stay I pray,
for the sake of the girl I love
Meaning: Plum blossoms, for which the warbler could hardly bear to wait, do not scatter, I pray, for the sake of the girl I love.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 845

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thirty-two poems on plum blossoms, with preface"
The poet asks the plum blossoms, so eagerly awaited by the warbler, not to fall, for the sake of the girl he loves. He layers the warbler's impatient waiting with his own wish to show the blossoms to his beloved.
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 "Chikuzen Clerk Mon-shi Iwatari"; the clerk was the third-ranking provincial official.
The poet, Kadobe no Iwatari, was an official serving as clerk of Chikuzen Province.

First line, "uguisu no": names the warbler as the one who longed for the plum.
Second line, "machikate ni seshi": "kate ni" means unable to bear; it waited impatiently.
Third line, "ume ga hana": the blossoms addressed as those the warbler awaited.
Fourth line, "chirazu arikoso": "koso" expresses a wish: please do not fall. The poem breaks here.
Fifth line, "omou ko ga tame": "for the one I love," the inversion giving the reason for the wish last.
Author: Kadobe no Iwatari
Source: Manyoshu
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