Uragoishi waga se no kimi wa nadeshiko ga hana ni mo gamo na asanasana mimu

うら恋し我が背の君はなでしこが
花にもがもな朝な朝な見む

Roma-ji: Uragoishi waga se no kimi wa nadeshiko ga hana ni mo gamo na asanasana mimu
English Translation: From my heart I long
for you, dear friend—if only
you were a flower,
a pink in bloom, so that I
might gaze on you each morning
Meaning: My dear friend whom I long for with all my heart—if only you were a pink flower, so that I could look on you every morning.
Commentary: Book Seventeen 4010

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: the quatrain of "On suddenly seeing your poem expressing your feelings on going to the capital, the grief of parting in life tears my heart ten thousand times and my sorrow cannot be checked; I humbly offer what is in my heart in one poem with two quatrains"
If his dearly missed friend were a pink, he could gaze on him every morning—a poem regretting parting. This is one of two tanka attached to the chōka Ikenushi sent on the second day of the fifth month of 747 in answer to Yakamochi's 4006 and 4007, written before Yakamochi went up to the capital. The chōka laments that, even in this province far from Nara, seeing his friend had cheered his heart, but now that Yakamochi sets out by royal command, he wonders whether it is he who stays behind or the traveler who will grieve more; and since putting it in words would be ill-omened, he offers cloth to the god of the pass on Mount Tonami, praying that his friend may come safely back and that they may meet when the new month comes, in the full bloom of the pinks. Answering Yakamochi's likening of him to a jewel, Ikenushi likens Yakamochi to a pink flower, wishing, as the one left behind, to admire him every morning.
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, "The above are poems sent in reply by Ōtomo no Sukune Ikenushi (second day of the fifth month)."

First line, "uragoishi": ura means heart—"longed for from the depths of my heart."
Second line, "waga se no kimi wa": an address to a dear male friend, meaning Yakamochi.
Third line, "nadeshiko ga": the pink, an early-summer flower, taking up the close of the chōka, "that we may meet in the full bloom of the pinks."
Fourth line, "hana ni mo gamo na": "if only you were a flower"; the poem pauses here. It answers Yakamochi's "tama ni mo gamo na" in 4007 by changing "jewel" to "flower," forming a pair: the traveler wears his friend as a jewel, the one who stays sees his friend as a flower in the garden.
Fifth line, "asanasana mimu": "I would see you every morning," imagining pinks planted in the garden and admired each dawn.
Author: Ōtomo no Ikenushi
Source: Manyoshu
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