Ashihiki no yamazakurabana hitome dani kimi to shi miteba are koime ya mo

あしひきの山桜花一目だに
君とし見てば我れ恋ひめやも

Roma-ji: Ashihiki no yamazakurabana hitome dani kimi to shi miteba are koime ya mo
English Translation: The mountain cherries
of the foot-dragging hills—
if just one glance
I could share with you, my friend,
would I yearn for you like this
Meaning: If I could only see the mountain cherry blossoms with you, even for a moment, would I long for you as I do?
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3970

Headnote: "Envoy to a further poem, with tanka, sent to you." Before the chōka stands a letter in Chinese beginning "Your all-embracing virtue has bestowed grace upon my lowly self, and your priceless thoughts have consoled my humble heart"
If he could see the mountain cherries with his friend even once, he would not long for him so—a poem of his feelings for Ikenushi. This is an envoy to the chōka that Yakamochi, still not recovered, sent on the third day of the third month of 747 in reply to Ikenushi's consoling poems. In the letter he modestly says that as a child he never frequented the courts of the arts and in youth never studied at "the gate of Yama and Kaki," so he lacks words for making poems. This "Yama and Kaki" is taken to mean Kakinomoto no Hitomaro and Yamabe no Akahito (or, by another view, Yamanoue no Okura), an early example of reverence for poets of the past. The chōka laments that he let the season pass without picking flowers with his friend in their prime or hearing the warbler, and says that, moved by the kindness of Ikenushi's thoughts of him, he lies awake all night longing. Answering Ikenushi's wish to show him the cherries, he replies that being unable to see them together only deepens his longing.
The poet, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was the son of the Major Counselor Ōtomo no Tabito. Appointed Governor of Etchū in 746, he spent five years there, later serving as Junior Counselor and Governor of Inaba before rising to Middle Counselor. He is thought to have played a central role in compiling the Man'yōshū.
The left note reads, "Third day of the third month, Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi."

First line, "ashihiki no": a pillow word for mountains.
Second line, "yamazakurabana": mountain cherry blossoms, answering "the cherries blooming in the mountain gorge" in Ikenushi's 3967.
Third line, "hitome dani": "even one glance," replying to "tada hitome" in 3967.
Fourth line, "kimi to shi miteba": shi is emphatic and teba conditional—"if I could see them with you."
Fifth line, "are koime ya mo": meya mo is rhetorical—"would I yearn? surely not."
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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