Tago no ura no kishi no fujinami tachikaeri orade wa yukaji sode wa nuru tomo

田子の浦の岸の藤波立ち返り
折らでは行かじ袖は濡るとも

Roma-ji: Tago no ura no kishi no fujinami tachikaeri orade wa yukaji sode wa nuru tomo
English Translation: At Tago's fair bay,
the wisteria waves on the shore—
turning back again,
I'll not leave till I've broken some,
though my sleeves be soaked through.
Meaning: I'll turn back to the wisteria waves on the shore of Tago Bay—I won't leave without breaking off a spray, even if my sleeves get soaked.
Commentary: Spring Poems 110

Headnote: "On a folding-screen painting of a traveler breaking off wisteria at Tago Bay"
This poem responds to a screen painting of a traveler breaking off wisteria at Tago Bay. Taking the traveler's heart, the poet says the wisteria on the shore is so lovely that he must turn back and break some, even if his sleeves are soaked by the waves.
The first line reads "Tago Bay" with one set of characters in the Jōkyō text and another in the Ruijū text, and the Ruijū headnote lacks a character. The wisteria of Tako Bay is sung in a Man'yōshū poem by Ōtomo no Yakamochi and his companions, who would wear the wisteria that colors even the depths of the bay for those who had not seen it.

Line 1 is hypermetric at six syllables, evoking Tako Bay, sung in the Man'yōshū as a place famed for wisteria.
Line 2 likens the wisteria clusters on the shore to waves.
Line 3 is the same word as in the preceding poem, 109, an associated word with the "waves" of fujinami.
Line 4: de is a negative conjunctive and ji a negative intention, "I will not go without breaking them"; the poem pauses here.
Line 5 means "even if my sleeves are wet," in inversion; nuru ("wet") is also associated with "waves."
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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