Waga yado no hagi no shitaba wa akikaze mo imada fukaneba kaku zo momiteru

我が宿の萩の下葉は秋風も
いまだ吹かねばかくぞもみてる

Roma-ji: Waga yado no hagi no shitaba wa akikaze mo imada fukaneba kaku zo momiteru
English Translation: In my garden here
the clover's lower leaves have,
though the autumn wind
has not even blown as yet,
turned to autumn colors so
Meaning: The lower leaves of the bush clover in my garden have turned color like this, though the autumn wind has not yet blown.
Commentary: Book Eight Autumn Love Poems 1628

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems sent by Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi to the Elder Daughter of Sakanoue with two things he broke off, out-of-season wisteria blossoms and autumn leaves of bush clover"
Sending colored clover leaves, the poet sings that the lower leaves of the bush clover in his garden have turned color like this in summer, before the autumn wind has even blown. The leaves coloring ahead of their season are also read as a figure for a love that deepens without waiting for its time. The note dates this exchange to the sixth month of summer, Tenpyō 12 (740).
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 Sakanoue, was the daughter of Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue and Yakamochi's cousin, and later became his wife.

The first line takes up the first line of the preceding poem, naming the same garden.
The second line names the lower leaves of the clover, the first to color in autumn. 1575 of this book likewise sings of "the lower leaves of the bush clover" coloring with the cry of autumn geese.
The third line names the autumn wind, thought to color the clover.
In the fourth line, "neba" has the concessive sense of "though it has not yet blown."
The final line forms a kakari-musubi between "zo" and "ru," the attributive of the continuative "ri," stressing, as he points to the leaves he sends, that they have colored like this.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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