我が宿の一群萩を思ふ子に
見せずほとほと散らしつるかも
見せずほとほと散らしつるかも
- Roma-ji
-
Waga yado no hitomura hagi o omou ko ni misezu hotohoto chirashitsuru kamo
- English Translation
-
In my garden here,
the clump of bush clover:
to the girl I love,
without my showing it, I nearly
let it scatter all away
- Meaning
- The clump of bush clover in my garden: I nearly let it fall without ever showing it to the girl I love.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 1565
Headnote: "A poem in reply by Ōtomo no Yakamochi"
Answering Heki no Nagae no Otome's poem, Yakamochi says he nearly let the clump of bush clover in his garden fall without showing it to the girl he loves. By saying he wished to show her the clover, he conveys that he had been thinking of her.
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 means "the clump of bush clover," blooming in a cluster.
The third line, "to the girl I love," refers to the author of the preceding poem.
The fourth line means "without showing it, nearly," with "hotohoto" describing something on the verge of happening.
The final line, with the perfective "tsu" and exclamatory "kamo," laments that he almost let it fall. Ōtomo no Tabito's 1542 in this book also seeks, before clover about to fall, "someone to see it," sharing the thought of the one to whom the clover might be shown.
- Author
- Otomo no Yakamochi
- Source
- Manyoshu
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