Otomera ni yukiai no wase o karu toki ni narinikerashi mo hagi no hana saku

娘女らに行相の早稲を刈る時に
なりにけらしも萩の花咲く

Roma-ji: Otomera ni yukiai no wase o karu toki ni narinikerashi mo hagi no hana saku
English Translation: Meeting maidens there,
"Yukiai" the early rice,
the time to reap it
seems to have arrived at last;
the bush clover is in bloom.
Meaning: It seems the time has come to reap the early rice of Yukiai, whose name speaks of meeting maidens—for the bush clover is in bloom.
Commentary: Book Ten Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 2117

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Flowers"
Seeing the bush clover in bloom, this poem infers that the time for harvesting the early rice has come. It shows the practical wisdom of taking the clover's blooming as a guide for farm work, marking the arrival of the season of autumn's harvest. "Otomera ni yukiai no" draws out "Yukiai," a place or variety name, from the sense of meeting, faintly echoing the hope of meeting young maidens.

The first line, "to the maidens," leads into "Yukiai."
In the second line, "yukiai no wase o," "Yukiai" is taken as a place or variety name and "wase" is early-ripening rice.
The third line, "the time to reap," names the season.
In the fourth line, "narinikerashi mo," "kerashi" is inference about the past and "mo" exclamatory; the poem breaks here.
The last line, "the bush clover blooms," closes with the scene that grounds the inference.
Source: Manyoshu
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