Kawakami ni arau wakana no nagarekite imo ga atari no se ni koso yorame

川上に洗ふ若菜の流れ来て
妹があたりの瀬にこそ寄らめ

Roma-ji: Kawakami ni arau wakana no nagarekite imo ga atari no se ni koso yorame
English Translation: The young greens washed
upstream along the river
come floating down:
near the place where my love dwells,
to that shallow let them drift
Meaning: May the young greens washed upstream come floating down and drift ashore at the shallows near where my beloved lives.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2838

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Metaphorical Poems"
May the young greens being washed upstream float down and come to rest in the shallows near the beloved's home. Likening himself to the drifting greens, the speaker voices the wish to come to her as naturally as a thing carried by the current.
By the left note "the four poems above express feelings through grasses," this is the fourth of four poems on grasses. It closes the sequence of low reeds and sedge with young greens, and against the lament of the preceding poem, of being left in a tangle, it sings of the wish to drift toward the beloved.
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, "kawakami ni": "upstream on the river." It gives the place where the greens are washed and suggests the course down which they will flow.
Second line, "arau wakana no": "the young greens being washed." Young greens are edible plants picked in early spring, and here they stand for the speaker himself.
Third line, "nagarekite": "floating down." The greens carried by the current are overlaid with the heart's movement toward the beloved.
Fourth line, "imo ga atari no": "near the place of my beloved." "Imo" is a man's affectionate word for his beloved, and the line marks the destination.
Fifth line, "se ni koso yorame": "let them come to the shallows." The particle "koso" is answered by "me," the perfective form of the conjectural "mu," a kakari-musubi construction that carries the wish to come close to the beloved.
Source: Manyoshu
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