Waga yado ni makishi nadeshiko itsushika mo hana ni sakinamu nasoetsutsu mimu

我がやどに蒔きしなでしこいつしかも
花に咲きなむなそへつつ見む

Roma-ji: Waga yado ni makishi nadeshiko itsushika mo hana ni sakinamu nasoetsutsu mimu
English Translation: In my garden here
the pinks that I sowed as seed:
when, I wonder, when
will they come into blossom?
Then I will gaze on them as you
Meaning: The pinks I sowed in my garden: when will they ever bloom? When they do, I will gaze at them and think of them as you.
Commentary: Book Eight Spring Love Poems 1448

Headnote: "A poem sent by Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi to the Elder Daughter of the Sakanoue house"
The poet longs for the pinks he sowed in his garden to bloom soon and says that when they do, he will gaze at them as though they were his beloved. His feelings for someone he can rarely meet are entrusted to the heart that waits for flowers to open. The poem stands at the head of the spring love poems.
The author, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and an official of the Nara period. He rose to the post of Middle Counselor, is thought to have been closely involved in compiling the Man'yōshū, and left more poems than anyone else in the anthology. The recipient, the Elder Daughter of the Sakanoue house, was the daughter of Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue and Yakamochi's cousin, and later became his wife.

The first line names the garden of his own house.
The second line names pinks sown from seed, showing that it is not yet the time of flowering. In 1616 of this book, Lady Kasa likewise likens her beloved to a pink, so the heart that sees a lover in the flower is sung from both the man's and the woman's side.
The third line, "itsushika mo," expresses eager longing: "soon, when?"
The fourth line, with the perfective "na" and conjectural "mu," wonders impatiently when they will bloom, and the poem pauses here.
The final line, "I will gaze on them, likening them to you," closes on the volitional "mu," revealing his wish to look at the flowers as a stand-in for his love.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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