classic waka stream

国栖らが春菜摘むらむ司馬の野の
しばしば君を思ふこのころ
Roma-ji

Kuzura ga haruna tsumuramu shima no no no shibashiba kimi o omou kono koro

English Translation
Where the Kuzu folk
must be picking greens of spring,
there on Shima's fields—
often, often, I think of you,
all these days of late, my love.
Meaning
As the Kuzu folk must now be picking spring greens on the fields of Shima, so often, often I think of you these days.
Commentary
Book Ten Spring Love Poems 1919

Headnote: "Love Expressed Through Grasses"
Taking as its preface the fields of Shima where the Kuzu people pick spring greens, this poem sings of a heart that often thinks of the beloved these days. Its headnote is "Love Expressed Through Grasses." The sound of "Shima no no" leads into "shibashiba," often, and the rustic scene of Yoshino mountain folk picking greens impresses the frequency of love's longing. The custom of picking young greens sung in 1879 among the miscellaneous poems is here used as a preface to love.

In the first line, "kuzura ga," the Kuzu were people who lived in the mountains of Yoshino and presented local products and dances to the court.
In the second line, "haruna tsumuramu," "ramu" is present conjecture, imagining the present scene in distant Yoshino.
The third line, "of Shima Plain," is taken as a Yoshino place name and is hypermetric. The upper lines form a preface leading into the similar-sounding "shibashiba."
The fourth line, "often of you," echoes in sound the "shima" of the third line.
The last line, "I think these days," ends on a noun, closing with the speaker's present state of heart.
Source
Manyoshu
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