Haruhana no utsurou made ni aimineba tsukihi yomitsutsu imo matsuramu zo

春花のうつろふまでに相見ねば
月日数みつつ妹待つらむぞ

Roma-ji: Haruhana no utsurou made ni aimineba tsukihi yomitsutsu imo matsuramu zo
English Translation: Until the spring flowers
have faded and passed away
we have not once met—
counting the months and days,
surely my wife is waiting
Meaning: Since we have not met until the spring flowers have faded, my wife must be waiting for me, counting the months and days.
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3982

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Envoy to a poem, with tanka, setting forth my longing"
Not having met until the spring flowers fade, his wife must be waiting, counting the days—a poem imagining the wife who waits. This is an envoy to the chōka Yakamochi composed on the night of the twentieth day of the third month of 747, when longing for the wife he had left in the capital suddenly welled up. The chōka tells how, since he came down to Etchū by royal command, the year has turned and the spring flowers faded without their meeting; how, though he sees her in dreams, longing has piled up for want of meeting in waking life; and how, when the month of the hototogisu comes, he hopes to go by the Ōmi road to his house in Nara and quickly meet his wife, who stands at the gate waiting. Closing the envoys, it turns from his own longing to the heart of the wife waiting in the capital.
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, "The above was composed when longing suddenly arose in the night of the twentieth day of the third month. Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi."

First line, "haruhana no": spring flowers, taking up "until the spring flowers fade" in the chōka.
Second line, "utsurou made ni": "until they fade," expressing the passing of time.
Third line, "aimineba": the same as the third line of 3979 of this book, binding the first and last of the envoys.
Fourth line, "tsukihi yomitsutsu": yomu means to count, counting the days until his return.
Fifth line, "imo matsuramu zo": ramu is present conjecture and zo an emphatic particle—"surely my wife is waiting," closing with thoughts of her.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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