classic waka stream

韓衣着奈良の里の島松に
玉をし付けむよき人もがも
Roma-ji

Karakoromo kinara no sato no shimamatsu ni tama o shi tsukemu yoki hito mogamo

English Translation
Cloaks from Kara worn
till they are soft—in Nara's village,
on the island pine,
I would hang jewels, if only
there were someone fine to see
Meaning
On the island pine in the village of Nara—Nara, like a Kara cloak worn soft—I would hang jewels. If only there were someone worthy to see them.
Commentary
Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 952

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Four poems composed when the Emperor made a progress to the palace at Naniwa in the fifth year, the year of the Earth Dragon"
This poem says the poet would hang jewels on the pine growing on the garden island in the village of Nara, and wishes there were someone fine to share the sight. According to the headnote, this is one of four poems composed when Emperor Shōmu made a progress to the palace at Naniwa in Jinki 5 (728). None of the four is a poem praising the progress; all of them entrust feelings of love to mountains, jewels, pines and the like.
From Naniwa, where the progress has brought him, the poet thinks of the garden of his house in the capital of Nara and longs for someone to welcome with a pine so adorned. "Matsu," "pine," echoes "matsu," "to wait," and the pine is often sung as a thing that carries the feeling of waiting for someone.
The left note reads, "The above poems appear among the poems of Kasa no Asomi Kanamura. Some say they were composed by Kurumamochi no Asomi Chitose." They were included in Kasa no Kanamura's collection, but there is also a tradition attributing them to Kurumamochi no Chitose, so the author remains undetermined. Both Kasa no Kanamura and Kurumamochi no Chitose were court poets who accompanied the sovereigns on their progresses from the reign of Empress Genshō to that of Emperor Shōmu.
In the original text the third line is written "嶋待尓," and since some manuscripts read "嬬" for "嶋," there is a theory that reads it "tsuma matsu ni," "awaiting a spouse." Here we follow the standard reading, "on the island pine."

The first line, "Cloaks from Kara worn," refers to garments in the continental style; from "ki-nara(su)," "to wear soft," it leads by sound to "Nara," functioning like a pillow word.
The second line, "till they are soft—in Nara's village," slides from "kinara" into "the village of Nara," referring to the capital of Nara, where the poet's home was.
The third line, "on the island pine," means the pine planted on an island built in a garden pond, picturing the garden of the house in Nara.
The fourth line, "I would hang jewels, if only," means "I will adorn it with jewels," with "shi" as an emphatic particle. The sense breaks here, making this a poem with a pause after the fourth line. It echoes "the jewel that glints and gleams" in 951 of this book by placing "jewel" in the same fourth line.
The final line, "there were someone fine to see," means "would that there were a worthy person," with "mogamo" as a particle of longing. The poem closes with the wish for someone to look on the adorned pine together.
Source
Manyoshu
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