Nokoritaru yuki ni majireru ume no hana hayaku na chiri so yuki wa kenu tomo

残りたる雪に交れる梅の花
早くな散りそ雪は消ぬとも

Roma-ji: Nokoritaru yuki ni majireru ume no hana hayaku na chiri so yuki wa kenu tomo
English Translation: Mingled with the snow
that lingers on in patches,
O blossoms of plum,
do not be quick to scatter,
even though the snow may melt
Meaning: Plum blossoms mingled with the lingering snow, do not be quick to scatter, even if the snow should melt away.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 849

Headnote: "Four poems later composed in response to the plum poems"
The poet asks the plum blossoms mingled with lingering snow not to scatter quickly, even if the snow melts. Setting white snow beside white plum, he contrasts the snow that will vanish first with the plum he wishes would stay.
The headnote reads "Four poems later composed in response to the plum poems," and they were written after the Plum Blossom Banquet as a reply to its poems. No author is named, but they are generally attributed to Ōtomo no Tabito, the host of the banquet.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was the son of the Major Counselor Ōtomo no Yasumaro and the father of Ōtomo no Yakamochi. Late in the Jinki era he went down to Tsukushi as Governor-General of Dazaifu, returned to the capital in Tenpyō 2 as Major Counselor, and died the following year. Versed in Chinese letters and Daoist thought, he formed a literary circle at Dazaifu with Yamanoue no Okura and others, known as the Tsukushi poetic circle.

First line, "nokoritaru": "lingering," setting the scene of a garden in early spring.
Second line, "yuki ni majireru": blooming mingled in the snow, the whites of snow and plum hard to tell apart.
Third line, "ume no hana": placed as the one addressed.
Fourth line, "hayaku na chiri so": "na ... so" forbids: do not scatter so soon. The poem breaks here.
Fifth line, "yuki wa kenu tomo": "ke" is a form of the verb "ku," to vanish. Even if the snow melts, let the plum remain; the inversion strengthens the wish.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito (attributed)
Source: Manyoshu
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