Wagimoko ga nani tomo ware o omowaneba fufumeru hana no ho ni sakinu beshi

我妹子が何とも我れを思はねば
ふふめる花の穂に咲きぬべし

Roma-ji: Wagimoko ga nani tomo ware o omowaneba fufumeru hana no ho ni sakinu beshi
English Translation: Since my dear beloved
thinks of me as nothing at all,
this flower held in bud
must burst out into the open
and come into bloom at last
Meaning: Because my beloved thinks nothing of me at all, my love, like a flower still in bud, seems sure to burst into open bloom for all to see.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2783

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Because the woman he loves thinks nothing of him, a man fears that the feelings he has hidden in his heart are about to open like a budding flower and show themselves. Unable to bear her coldness, he entrusts to the image of an opening flower a love he can no longer keep from others' eyes.
With this poem begins a run of poems on flowers. The bud that comes "ho ni saku," into open bloom, stands for love made visible; it is paired in the arrangement with the next poem, which vows never to let love show in its colour like the karaai flower, so that the fear of showing here and the refusal to show there face each other.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "wagimoko ga": "my dear beloved." "Wagimoko" is a man's affectionate word for his love or wife, showing this to be a man's poem.
Second line, "nani tomo ware o": "me, as anything at all," which with the negative that follows says she gives him not the slightest thought.
Third line, "omowaneba": "since she does not think of me." The conditional form "ne" of the negative "zu" with the particle "ba" expresses cause or reason.
Fourth line, "fufumeru hana no": "the flower still in bud." "Fufume" is from the verb "fufumu," and "ru" is the attributive of the continuative auxiliary "ri"; the unopened flower is laid over the love kept within the heart.
Fifth line, "ho ni sakinu beshi": "is sure to burst into bloom." To bloom "ho ni" is a figure for feelings showing outwardly, and "nu beshi," the intensive "nu" with the conjectural "beshi," expresses the expectation that it will surely happen.
Source: Manyoshu
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