Komori nomi koureba kurushi nadeshiko no hana ni sakide yo asana sana mimu

隠りのみ恋ふれば苦しなでしこの
花に咲き出よ朝な朝な見む

Roma-ji: Komori nomi koureba kurushi nadeshiko no hana ni sakide yo asana sana mimu
English Translation: Keeping all within,
loving hidden, it is pain;
as a wild pink flower
blossom forth for me to see,
I'd gaze on you morn by morn.
Meaning: Loving only in secret is painful—so bloom forth as a wild pink flower, and I will gaze on you morning after morning.
Commentary: Book Ten Summer Love Poems 1992

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Flowers"
Out of the pain of loving in secret, this poem wishes the beloved would bloom forth as a wild pink so the speaker could gaze on her every morning. The wish to bring a hidden love into the open and the wish to see the beloved close by each day are entrusted to the wild pink. The pink sung in 1970 and elsewhere is here wished for as the beloved's embodiment.

The first line, "komori nomi," means only in hiding, keeping the love secret.
The second line, "it is painful to love," breaks the poem after the second line.
The third line, "the wild pink," a delicate flower evoking the beloved.
The fourth line, "bloom forth as a flower," is an imperative expressing a wish.
In the last line, "asana sana mimu," "mu" expresses intention, closing with the wish to see her every morning.
Source: Manyoshu
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