Unohana no saku to wa nashi ni aru hito ni koi ya wataramu katamoi ni shite

卯の花の咲くとはなしにある人に
恋ひやわたらむ片思にして

Roma-ji: Unohana no saku to wa nashi ni aru hito ni koi ya wataramu katamoi ni shite
English Translation: Like the unohana
never coming into bloom,
so is that one's heart—
must I go on loving still,
all alone, in one-sided love?
Meaning: Must I go on longing, in one-sided love, for someone who never opens to me, as the deutzia never blooms?
Commentary: Book Ten Summer Love Poems 1989

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Flowers"
This poem laments going on longing, in one-sided love, for someone who never opens her heart as the deutzia opens its blossoms. Likening a flower's blooming to the opening of the heart, it expresses an unrequited longing for one who never responds. Following the preceding poem, it uses the deutzia as a figure for love; where that poem lamented a beloved who did not come, this one laments one who does not open her heart.

The first line, "of the deutzia," is the object of comparison.
The second line, "without blooming," shows a heart that never opens.
The third line, "to such a person," names the one loved.
In the fourth line, "koi ya wataramu," "ya" is an interrogative particle in kakari-musubi with the attributive "mu."
The last line, "katamoi ni shite," in one-sided love, gives by inversion the nature of the love at the end.
Source: Manyoshu
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