Uguisu no kayou kakine no unohana no uki koto are ya kimi ga kimasanu

鴬の通ふ垣根の卯の花の
憂きことあれや君が来まさぬ

Roma-ji: Uguisu no kayou kakine no unohana no uki koto are ya kimi ga kimasanu
English Translation: Where the warblers flit
to and fro along the hedge
the unohana—
is there something that you mind,
that you do not come to me?
Meaning: Like the deutzia on the hedge where the warbler comes and goes—is something troubling you, that you do not come?
Commentary: Book Ten Summer Love Poems 1988

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Flowers"
Taking as its preface the deutzia on the hedge where the warbler comes and goes, this poem frets that the beloved does not come because something troubles him. The "u" of "unohana" leads through its sound into "uki," troubling, and anxiety and resentment toward the beloved who does not visit seep through. The preface layering warbler and deutzia, emblems of spring passing into summer, also conveys the long time of waiting with the passing of the season.

The first line, "the warbler's," names the spring bird, still coming to the hedge in summer.
The second line, "the hedge it visits," names the place.
The third line, "the deutzia," the early summer flower, ends the preface that leads into the homophonous "uki."
In the fourth line, "uki koto are ya," "ya" is an interrogative particle in kakari-musubi with "nu" in the last line.
In the last line, "kimi ga kimasanu," "masu" is honorific and "nu" the attributive of the negative "zu," closing with worry over the beloved who does not come.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Katayori ni ito o zo waga yoru waga seko ga hanatachibana o nukamu to omoite
Next Poem: Unohana no saku to wa nashi ni aru hito ni koi ya wataramu katamoi ni shite