Uchikaeshi mimaku zo hoshiki furusato no yamato nadeshiko iro ya kawareru - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

うち返し見まくぞほしき故郷の
大和なでしこ色や変はれる

Roma-ji: Uchikaeshi mimaku zo hoshiki furusato no yamato nadeshiko iro ya kawareru
English Translation: Once more, again
how I long to look on you—
in the old village,
the Yamato pink I loved,
have its colors changed by now
Meaning: How I long to see it once again. The Yamato pink in the village I once knew so well—has its color changed by now?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems IV 796

Headnote: "Sent when he remembered a woman he had forgotten."
The poet says he longs to see it once again, and wonders whether the Yamato pink of the old village has changed its color. Comparing a woman he once visited to a pink, he worries whether her heart has changed in the long time they have not met.
According to the headnote, the poem was sent when he remembered a woman he had forgotten. Layering "nadeshiko," the pink, with "nadeshi ko," the child he once caressed, he lets his fondness for the woman he once cherished show through.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Uchikaeshi," means "again, once more."
The second line, "mimaku zo hoshiki," means "how I long to see," "mimaku" being "mimu" made into a noun with "ku." "Zo" is an emphatic binding particle closed by the attributive "hoshiki," and the poem pauses here.
The third line, "furusato no," means "of the old familiar place," the village where he once visited the woman.
The fourth line, "yamato nadeshiko," names the native Japanese pink and carries "nadeshi ko," a cherished child, standing for the woman he loved.
The last line, "iro ya kawareru," means "has its color changed," with "ya" an interrogative binding particle and "ru" the attributive of the continuative auxiliary "ri," completing the kakarimusubi. The fading of the flower's color overlaps with a change of the woman's heart.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
Prev Poem: Waga koi no kazu o kazoeba amanohara kumori futagari furu ame no goto
Next Poem: Yamabiko no koe ni tatete mo toshi wa henu waga monoomoi o shiranu hito kike