Ume no hana miyama toshimi ni ari tomo ya kaku nomi kimi wa miredo akani semu

梅の花み山としみにありともや
かくのみ君は見れど飽かにせむ

Roma-ji: Ume no hana miyama toshimi ni ari tomo ya kaku nomi kimi wa miredo akani semu
English Translation: Plum blossoms, even
if they covered all the hills
as thick as a wood,
would you still gaze on them so,
never having seen enough
Meaning: Even if the plum blossoms grew thick enough to cover the hills, would you still gaze at them like this, never tiring of the sight?
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3902

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Six new poems in belated response to the plum-blossom poems of the Dazaifu days"
Even if plum blossoms filled the hills, would you still gaze at them so tirelessly?—a poem imagining the heart of one who loved the plum. 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. It recalls the endless delight in the plum of those who gathered at the banquet.
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, "ume no hana": taking up the third line of the preceding poem, 3901, it raises the plum blossoms as theme.
Second line, "miyama toshimi ni": mi is a prefix and shimi ni means "growing thick"—a hyperbole, "so thick as to fill the hills."
Third line, "ari tomo ya": "even if there were…, would…?" tomo is a concessive hypothetical and ya an interrogative particle bound to semu in the last line.
Fourth line, "kaku nomi kimi wa": "you, just like this"; "you" seems to mean those who delighted in the plum at the banquet.
Fifth line, "miredo akani semu": akani means "not tiring of"; "would you go on gazing without tiring?" Miredo akanu is a stock phrase of praise, and it resonates with "miredo akanu kamo" in 3926 of this book.
Author: Ōtomo no Fumimochi
Source: Manyoshu
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