Kaku shi araba nani ka uekemu yamabuki no yamu toki mo naku kouraku omoeba

かくしあらば何か植ゑけむ山吹の
やむ時もなく恋ふらく思へば

Roma-ji: Kaku shi araba nani ka uekemu yamabuki no yamu toki mo naku kouraku omoeba
English Translation: If it was to be
like this, why did I plant it?
Yamabuki flowers—
never ceasing, not a time,
as I think of how I long.
Meaning: If it was to be like this, why did I ever plant the yamabuki? When I think of how I long for you, never ceasing for a moment.
Commentary: Book Ten Spring Love Poems 1907

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Flowers"
This poem laments that planting the yamabuki has only made longing mount without ceasing. The "yama" of "yamabuki" and the "yamu" of "yamu toki mo naku," never ceasing, echo in sound, expressing the pain of recalling the beloved each time one sees the flower. It seems the yamabuki was a flower tied to memories of the beloved. Like the yamabuki of 1860, it entrusts an endless longing to this flower.

The first line, "kaku shi araba," if it is to be so, uses the emphatic "shi" and is hypermetric.
In the second line, "nani ka uekemu," "ka" is an interrogative or rhetorical particle in kakari-musubi with the attributive "kemu," regretting: why did I plant it?
The third line, "the yamabuki," names the flower planted, serving as a preface leading into the similar-sounding "yamu."
The fourth line, "never ceasing," echoes in sound the "yamabuki" of the third line.
In the last line, "kouraku omoeba," "kouraku" means my longing; by inversion it gives the reason for regret at the close.
Source: Manyoshu
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