我が宿のなでしこの花盛りなり
手折りて一目見せむ子もがも
手折りて一目見せむ子もがも
- Roma-ji
-
Waga yado no nadeshiko no hana sakari nari taorite hitome misemu ko mo gamo
- English Translation
-
In my garden here
the blossoms of the pinks
are in their full bloom:
if only there were a girl
to pick them for and show
- Meaning
- The pinks in my garden are in full bloom; if only there were a girl to whom I could pick some and show them, if only for a glance.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1496
Headnote: "A poem on the pink by Ōtomo no Yakamochi"
The pinks in his garden have reached their prime, but the poet laments that there is no beloved girl nearby to pick them for and show. His longing for someone with whom to share the beauty of the flowers is expressed as a wish.
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 first line names his own garden.
The second line names the pink, a delicate pale crimson flower often sung as bearing the image of a beloved girl.
The third line states that the flowers are at their peak, and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "picking them, for a single glance," expresses the wish to show them even a little.
The final line, with the desiderative "mo gamo," wishes there were a girl to show them to. Ōtomo no Tabito's 1542 in this book also ends with "if only there were someone to see them," of bush clover about to fall, sharing the wish for someone with whom to share the flowers at their height.
- Author
- Otomo no Yakamochi
- Source
- Manyoshu
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