classic waka stream

我が行きは七日は過ぎじ竜田彦
ゆめこの花を風にな散らし
Roma-ji

Waga yuki wa nanuka wa sugiji tatsutahiko yume kono hana o kaze ni na chirashi

English Translation
My journey's length
shall not pass beyond seven days;
O god of Tatsuta,
never let these blossoms here
be scattered by your wind.
Meaning
My journey will not last beyond seven days. O god of Tatsuta, never let the wind scatter these blossoms.
Commentary
Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1748

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems from the time when the lords and officials went down to Naniwa in the third month of spring, with tanka"; envoy
Since his journey will not take seven days, the speaker begs the wind god of Tatsuta never to scatter the cherry blossoms before then. His wish to see the flowers again on the way home becomes a prayer to the god.
This is the envoy to the long poem 1747 in this book. The long poem sees that wind and rain have stripped the upper branches of the cherries on the peak of Ogura on Mount Tatsuta, and asks the blossoms on the lower branches not to fall until the traveler returns. Some link it to Emperor Shōmu's progress to Naniwa in the third month of the sixth year of Tenpyō (734).
The author, Takahashi no Mushimaro, was a poet of the early Nara period who is thought to have served under Fujiwara no Umakai when Umakai was governor of Hitachi. He excelled at long poems on local legends and the landscape of the eastern provinces. This poem is taken from the Mushimaro Collection, which is thought to consist mainly of his own works.

The first line, "my journey's length," refers to the speaker's travel.
The second line, "shall not pass beyond seven days," uses the negative conjecture ji, and the poem pauses here.
The third line, "O god of Tatsuta," addresses the wind god, worshipped to calm the winds.
The fourth line, "never let these blossoms here," uses yume, which anticipates the prohibition below.
The final line, "be scattered by your wind," uses the prohibitive na. Like the long poem's "do not fall and scatter," it ends with the wish that the flowers not fall.
Author
Takahashi no Mushimaro (from the Mushimaro Collection)
Source
Manyoshu
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