Yamagai ni sakeru sakura o tada hitome kimi ni miseteba nani o ka omowamu

山峽に咲ける桜をただ一目
君に見せてば何をか思はむ

Roma-ji: Yamagai ni sakeru sakura o tada hitome kimi ni miseteba nani o ka omowamu
English Translation: In the mountain gorge
the cherry trees are blooming—
if just a single glance
of them I could show to you,
what more could I wish for
Meaning: If I could show you, even just for a moment, the cherry blossoms blooming in the mountain gorge, what more could I wish for?
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3967

Headnote: a letter in Chinese beginning "Suddenly I am honored with your fragrant letter; its brushwork soars above the clouds. You have also sent Japanese poems, a forest of words spread like brocade"
If only he could show his friend the cherry blossoms in the mountain gorge even once, he would wish for nothing more—a poem consoling the bedridden Yakamochi. This is one of two poems Ikenushi sent on the second day of the third month of 747 in answer to Yakamochi's poems of sorrow. The letter says that, unexpectedly honored with his letter and poems, he recites them and so consoles his longing. Describing late spring as the most charming season—red peaches glowing, playful butterflies dancing round the flowers, green willows swaying, lovely warblers singing hidden in the leaves—he laments that they cannot enjoy it together and closes by saying that, as the proverb has it, he adds wisteria to brocade, offering his clumsy poems in place of conversation. It carries the friendship of one who wishes at least to show the full bloom of the cherries to a friend unable to go out.
The poet, Ōtomo no Ikenushi, served as Secretary of Etchū under Governor Yakamochi. A member of the same clan and well versed in Chinese verse and prose, he exchanged many poems and letters with Yakamochi during the Etchū years.
The left note reads, "Second day of Kosen, Secretary Ōtomo no Sukune Ikenushi." Kosen is another name for the third month.

First line, "yamagai ni": yamagai is the valley between mountains.
Second line, "sakeru sakura o": "the cherry trees in bloom," the mountain cherries of late spring.
Third line, "tada hitome": "just one glance." Yakamochi's reply, 3970, answers by taking up this hitome: "if I could see them with you even once."
Fourth line, "kimi ni miseteba": teba is the conditional of the perfective tsu—"if I could show them to you."
Fifth line, "nani o ka omowamu": ka is rhetorical—"what would I have to think of? nothing at all," closing with the sense that nothing would be left to wish for.
Author: Ōtomo no Ikenushi
Source: Manyoshu
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