Yama takami shirayūbana ni ochitagitsu taki no kōchi wa miredo akanu kamo

山高み白木綿花におちたぎつ
滝の河内は見れど飽かぬかも

Roma-ji: Yama takami shirayūbana ni ochitagitsu taki no kōchi wa miredo akanu kamo
English Translation: Since the mountains are high,
like white mulberry-cloth flowers
tumbling and churning—
the river bend of the rapids:
though I gaze I never tire
Meaning: Because the mountains are so high, the water tumbles and churns like white flowers of mulberry cloth; this river bend of the rapids I can gaze on forever and never tire of it.
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 909

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two envoys"
This poem praises the river bend of the Yoshino rapids, where the water tumbles down from the high mountains throwing up spray like white mulberry-cloth flowers, as a sight one can never tire of. It is the second of the two envoys attached to the long poem 907, composed while accompanying Empress Genshō on her progress to Yoshino in the fifth month of Yōrō 7 (723).
The poem's craft lies in likening the white spray of the torrent to the mulberry-cloth flowers used in sacred rites, conveying both holiness and purity at once. The closing phrase "though I gaze I never tire" had been handed down in poems praising Yoshino ever since Kakinomoto no Hitomaro's envoy to his Yoshino poem, Book One, 37, "Though I gaze I never tire of the Yoshino River's smooth rocks," and Kanamura follows this pattern in praising the site of the progress.
The poet, Kasa no Kanamura, was a court poet of the early Nara period who accompanied the sovereigns from Empress Genshō to Emperor Shōmu on their progresses and left many poems of praise. Together with Yamabe no Akahito, he is regarded as a representative poet of the age.

Where the preceding poem, 908, sang of the white waves of "the pure river bend," this poem sings of the torrent of "the river bend of the rapids," so that the two envoys praise the river bend twice. The final line, "though I gaze I never tire," is also used unchanged in the next poem, 910.
The first line, "Since the mountains are high," gives the reason. It uses the so-called "-mi" construction, which expresses a cause in the form "(noun) o (adjective stem) -mi"; here the particle "o" is omitted.
The second line, "like white mulberry-cloth flowers," refers to white cloth made from paper-mulberry fibre shaped into flowers, and the particle "ni" here expresses comparison, meaning "like." The whiteness of the spray is likened to the cloth flowers offered to the gods.
The third line, "tumbling and churning," means falling and swirling violently, and modifies "the rapids" that follows. It takes up the same verb "tagitsu" as the final line of the preceding poem, "the white waves that surge and churn."
In the fourth line, "the river bend of the rapids," the word "taki" in the Man'yōshū usually means not a waterfall dropping vertically but swift, rushing rapids. The particle "wa" singles out this river bend as the subject.
The final line, "though I gaze I never tire," means "however long I look, I never tire of it," with "kamo" as a final particle of exclamation. Using the set phrase of Yoshino praise poems, it closes the poem as a celebration of the land.
Author: Kasa no Kanamura
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Toshinoha ni kakumo miteshika miyoshino no kiyoki kōchi no tagitsu shiranami
Next Poem: Kamukara ka mi ga hoshikaramu miyoshino no taki no kōchi wa miredo akanu kamo