Chichihaha mo hana ni mo ga mo ya kusamakura tabi wa yuku tomo sasagote yukamu

父母も花にもがもや草枕
旅は行くとも捧ごて行かむ

Roma-ji: Chichihaha mo hana ni mo ga mo ya kusamakura tabi wa yuku tomo sasagote yukamu
English Translation: Father and mother,
would that you too were flowers;
pillowed on the grass
though I go upon my journey
I would hold you up and go
Meaning: If only my father and mother were flowers! Even on a journey sleeping on grass, I would carry them along held up in both hands.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4325

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
If only my father and mother were flowers, I would carry them held high even on my journey: the poem sings of the sorrow of leaving his parents behind. The fifth poem from Tōtōmi, it shares the idea of the poem three before that likens a mother to a flower, simply stating the wish that if they were flowers he could take them along. Sasagote is a dialect form of sasagete.
The author, Hasetsukabe no Kuromasa, was a guard from Sano District in Tōtōmi; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "chichihaha mo," names father and mother together as the object of his feelings.
The second line, "hana ni mo ga mo ya," uses the wishing mogamo and exclamatory ya: would that they were flowers. The poem pauses here.
The third line, "kusamakura," "grass pillow," is a pillow word for "journey."
The fourth line, "tabi wa yuku tomo," is a concessive supposition: "though I go on a journey."
The closing line, "sasagote yukamu," "I would hold them up and go," with the volitional mu. His care for his parents shows in the gesture of lifting them in both hands.
Author: Hasetsukabe no Kuromasa
Source: Manyoshu
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