Kozo no haru aerishi kimi ni koinite shi sakura no hana wa mukaekerashi mo

去年の春逢へりし君に恋ひにてし
桜の花は迎へけらしも

Roma-ji: Kozo no haru aerishi kimi ni koinite shi sakura no hana wa mukaekerashi mo
English Translation: Ever since last spring
when they first met you, my lord,
they have longed for you:
the blossoms of the cherry
seem to have come to greet you
Meaning: The cherry blossoms, which have longed for you ever since they met you last spring, seem to have bloomed again to welcome you.
Commentary: Book Eight Spring Miscellaneous Poems 1430

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem on cherry blossoms [with tanka]," envoy
The poem says that the cherry blossoms, which have gone on longing for someone they met last spring, have bloomed again this year as if to welcome that person. Treating the cherry as a person, it entrusts the joy of reunion to the flowers. It is the envoy to the long poem 1429; answering the long poem's praise of the cherry's beauty, it closes on the reunion of flower and person.
The note following the poems says, "The above two poems were recited by Wakamiya no Ayumaro," so we know he recited them, but the author is unknown. Wakamiya no Ayumaro was an official of the Nara period whose name appears in the Man'yōshū as a reciter of old poems.

The first line, "last spring," marks the time when flower and person met. 1423 of this book opens with the same line, and the two share the way they sing of this year's blossoms against the memory of last year.
The second line, with the continuative "ri" and past "shi," means "you whom they met last spring."
The third line piles up the perfective "ni" and "te" with the past "shi" to show that they have gone on longing. Its subject is the cherry of the fourth line, so the flowers are personified.
The fourth line presents the cherry as the one who longs.
The final line adds the exclamatory "mo" to the past inferential "kerashi," surmising that they must have bloomed to greet you. In this image of cherries welcoming a person one senses a blessing that honors the host and guests of a banquet.
Source: Manyoshu
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