Mifuyu tsugi haru wa kitaredo ume no hana kimi ni shi araneba oku hito mo nashi

み冬継ぎ春は来たれど梅の花
君にしあらねば招く人もなし

Roma-ji: Mifuyu tsugi haru wa kitaredo ume no hana kimi ni shi araneba oku hito mo nashi
English Translation: Winter has passed on
and the spring has come again,
yet these plum blossoms—
since you are no longer here,
there is no one to call them
Meaning: Winter has given way and spring has come again—but since you are not here, there is no one to invite the plum blossoms.
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3901

Headnote: "Six new poems in belated response to the plum-blossom poems of the Dazaifu days"
Spring has come round after winter, but with you gone no one invites the plum blossoms—a poem thinking of one who is no more. This is one of six poems that Ōtomo no Fumimochi composed on the ninth day of the twelfth month of 740, written in response to the thirty-two poems of the plum-blossom banquet held at Tabito's residence in Dazaifu in the first month of 730 (Book Five, 815 to 846). Ten years had passed, and his father Tabito, host of that banquet, was already dead; a longing for the banquet of old runs beneath the series. The "you" seems to be Tabito, host of the plum banquet, and the arrival of spring is set against his absence.
The poet, Ōtomo no Fumimochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and the younger brother of Yakamochi. He died young in 746.
The left note reads, "The above were composed by Ōtomo no Sukune Fumimochi on the ninth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year."

First line, "mifuyu tsugi": mi is a prefix; "following on winter." Setting the turn from winter to spring at the head of the six, it answers in season the "fell as snow" of 3906 at the end.
Second line, "haru wa kitaredo": a concessive, "though spring has come."
Third line, "ume no hana": presenting the plum blossoms, theme of the banquet.
Fourth line, "kimi ni shi araneba": shi is emphatic; "since it is not you." "You" seems to mean Tabito, host of the banquet.
Fifth line, "oku hito mo nashi": oku means to invite and enjoy the blossoms. Recalling "inviting the plum blossoms, let us end our pleasures" in Book Five, 815, of the plum banquet, it laments that now no one is left to invite them.
Author: Ōtomo no Fumimochi
Source: Manyoshu
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