Waga yado ni sakeru akihagi tsune naraba waga matsu hito ni misemashi mono o

我がやどに咲ける秋萩常ならば
我が待つ人に見せましものを

Roma-ji: Waga yado ni sakeru akihagi tsune naraba waga matsu hito ni misemashi mono o
English Translation: At my own dwelling
the bush clover blooms in autumn—
if it lasted long,
to the one for whom I wait
I would show it, but alas!
Meaning: If only the autumn bush clover blooming at my home would last forever, I could show it to the one I am waiting for.
Commentary: Book Ten Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 2112

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Flowers"
This poem laments the transience of bush clover: if the clover blooming at home would last unchanged, the speaker could show it to the one awaited. The shortness of the flowers' peak overlaps with a beloved who is slow to come, showing the frustration of being unable to show him the beautiful flowers. It shares the feeling of 1969 in the summer poems, where the beloved came after the tachibana had fallen.

The first line, "at my dwelling," names the place.
The second line, "the autumn bush clover that blooms," names the flower.
The third line, "tsune naraba," if it were unchanging, uses "ba" for a supposition.
The fourth line, "to the one I await," names the beloved.
In the last line, "misemashi mono o," "mashi" is counterfactual and "mono o" adversative and exclamatory, closing with frustration at being unable to show it.
Source: Manyoshu
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