classic waka stream

時ならず玉をぞ貫ける卯の花の
五月を待たば久しくあるべみ
Roma-ji

Toki narazu tama o zo nukeru unohana no satsuki o mataba hisashiku arubemi

English Translation
Out of season now
I have threaded them as beads;
of the unohana
if I waited for the fifth month,
it would be so long a time.
Meaning
Out of season, I have strung them as beads already—for if I waited for the Fifth Month, when the deutzia blooms, it would be far too long.
Commentary
Book Ten Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1975

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Flowers"
This poem tells of stringing deutzia blossoms as beads without waiting for the Fifth Month, and it closes the summer flower group. The herbal beads that should be strung for the Fifth Month festival were made early with deutzia, showing a heart too eager to wait. Like 1939 and 1967, it sings of the summer custom of stringing beads.

The first line, "toki narazu," out of season, sets the scene.
In the second line, "tama o zo nukeru," "zo" is an emphatic particle answered by "ru," the attributive of "ri." The line is hypermetric and the poem breaks here.
The third line, "of the deutzia," leads into "Fifth Month," the month when the deutzia blooms.
In the fourth line, "satsuki o mataba," "ba" marks a supposition: if I waited until the Fifth Month.
In the last line, "hisashiku arubemi," "bemi" is the stem of "beshi" with the causal "mi": because it would take long. By inversion it closes with the reason.
Source
Manyoshu
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