Hana sakite mi wa naranedomo nagaki ke ni omooyuru ka mo yamabuki no hana

花咲きて実はならねども長き日に
思ほゆるかも山吹の花

Roma-ji: Hana sakite mi wa naranedomo nagaki ke ni omooyuru ka mo yamabuki no hana
English Translation: Though the blossoms bloom,
no fruit ever forms from them,
yet for days on end
how they linger in my mind—
the blossoms of yamabuki.
Meaning: Though its flowers bloom, it bears no fruit—yet for long days on end it stays in my thoughts, the yellow yamabuki flower.
Commentary: Book Ten Spring Miscellaneous Poems 1860

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Flowers"
This poem sings of the yamabuki, which blooms but bears no fruit, and of thinking of it for a long time. The fruitless yamabuki may be read as a figure for a love that will never be fulfilled, showing a single-hearted longing that goes on nonetheless. Following plum and cherry in the flower group, the yamabuki appears here, marking the progress of spring's flowers.

The first line, "flowers bloom," shows the beauty of the yamabuki's blossoms.
In the second line, "mi wa naranedomo," "ne" is the perfective form of the negative "zu" and "domo" is adversative, drawing on the fact that the double-flowered yamabuki bears no fruit.
The third line, "nagaki ke ni," means for a long time, "ke" meaning days or a span of time.
In the fourth line, "omooyuru ka mo," "ka mo" is exclamatory, and the poem breaks here, showing how it naturally comes to mind.
The last line, "the yamabuki flower," is a nominal ending that, by inversion, names the object of longing at the close.
Source: Manyoshu
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