Asobu uchi no tanoshiki niwa ni ume yanagi ori kazashiteba omoi nami kamo

遊ぶ内の楽しき庭に梅柳
折りかざしてば思ひなみかも

Roma-ji: Asobu uchi no tanoshiki niwa ni ume yanagi ori kazashiteba omoi nami kamo
English Translation: In the joyful garden
where we gather for our play,
if we break plum sprays
and willow to wear in our hair,
would all our cares fall away
Meaning: In the happy garden where we gather to make merry, if we were to break sprays of plum and willow to wear in our hair, would all our cares vanish?
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3905

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Six new poems in belated response to the plum-blossom poems of the Dazaifu days"
If one broke off plum and willow to wear in the joyful garden of the banquet, would all cares vanish?—a poem imagining the pleasures of the feast. 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. Picturing the merriment of the old banquet, it lets show the brooding of one who cannot take part.
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, "asobu uchi no": "during our merrymaking," a line with an extra syllable (six morae).
Second line, "tanoshiki niwa ni": the joyful garden of the banquet, recalling Tabito's garden at the plum banquet.
Third line, "ume yanagi": plum and willow side by side, taking up the pairing in 3903.
Fourth line, "ori kazashiteba": kazasu is to wear flowers or sprays in the hair, and teba is the conditional of the perfective tsu—"if we broke them and wore them." Against the reluctance to pluck in the preceding poem, 3904, it sings of the pleasure of wearing them.
Fifth line, "omoi nami kamo": nami means "being without"; "would there be no more cares?" with kamo voicing a wondering question.
Author: Ōtomo no Fumimochi
Source: Manyoshu
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