Nagaki yo o kimi ni koitsutsu ikerazu wa sakite chirinishi hana naramashi o

長き夜を君に恋ひつつ生けらずは
咲きて散りにし花ならましを

Roma-ji: Nagaki yo o kimi ni koitsutsu ikerazu wa sakite chirinishi hana naramashi o
English Translation: Through the long, long night
always longing, love, for you,
rather than live so,
would I were a flower bloomed
and then scattered, fallen, gone!
Meaning: Rather than live on longing for you through the long nights, I wish I were a flower that had bloomed and fallen.
Commentary: Book Ten Autumn Love Poems 2282

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Flowers"
This poem laments that rather than live on longing through long nights, it would have been better to be a flower that bloomed and fell. It expresses the wish to escape love's pain as envy of fallen flowers. Like "ke ka mo shinamashi koitsutsu arazu wa" in 2254 and others, it sings of the wish to vanish rather than go on longing.

The first line, "through the long nights," names the time.
The second line, "longing for you," names the state.
In the third line, "ikerazu wa," "zu wa" means rather than: rather than live.
In the fourth line, "sakite chirinishi," "ni" marks completion and "shi" is the attributive of the past "ki."
In the last line, "hana naramashi o," "mashi" is counterfactual and "o" exclamatory: I wish I were a flower.
Source: Manyoshu
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