Na ni shi owaba iza koto towamu miyakodori waga omou hito wa ari ya nashi ya to - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

名にし負はばいざこと問はむ都鳥
わが思ふ人はありやなしやと

Roma-ji: Na ni shi owaba iza koto towamu miyakodori waga omou hito wa ari ya nashi ya to
English Translation: If you bear that name,
then let me ask you something,
bird of the capital:
the one I love so dearly—
is she well, or is she not?
Meaning: If you truly carry the name of the capital, then let me ask you, capital bird: the one I love so dearly, is she still well, or is she gone?
Commentary: Book Nine Travel Poems 411

Headnote: "Reaching the banks of the Sumida River, which runs between the provinces of Musashi and Shimōsa, he longed terribly for the capital. He sat for a while by the river, and as he gazed out in sorrow, thinking how endlessly far he had come, the ferryman said, 'Get in the boat quickly, the sun is setting.' As they boarded to cross, everyone felt forlorn, for none was without someone dear in the capital. Just then a white bird with a red beak and red legs was playing by the river. It was a bird not seen in the capital, so no one knew it. When they asked the ferryman what bird it was, he said, 'This is the miyakodori,' and hearing that, he composed this."
The poet asks a bird that bears the name of the capital whether the one he left there is safe. Wit in seizing on the bird's name joins with an urgent concern for someone far away, making this one of the defining poems of the journey to the east.
According to the headnote, Narihira's party reached the Sumida River on the border of Musashi and Shimōsa and sank into longing for the capital; urged on by the ferryman, they boarded, and seeing an unfamiliar white bird, they asked its name and were told it was the miyakodori, the capital bird. Almost the same scene appears in episode nine of The Tales of Ise, where everyone in the boat is said to have wept.
Ariwara no Narihira was a son of Prince Abo, himself a son of Emperor Heizei, and his mother was Princess Ito, a daughter of Emperor Kanmu. He is counted among the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, and is taken to be the hero of The Tales of Ise.

In the first line, "shi" is emphatic and "owaba" is the irrealis with "ba," a hypothetical: "if you bear the name of the capital." Following the preceding poem, 410, which set a flower's name at the heads of its lines, this poem seizes on a bird's name, continuing the play on names.
In the second line, "koto tou" means to ask, and "mu" expresses intention.
The third line, "miyakodori," is an address, and the poem breaks here. The bird is thought to be today's black-headed gull.
The fourth line, "the one I love," points to someone dear left in the capital, read as either wife or lover.
The last line, "is she there or not," gives the content of the question. The content of "let me ask" in the second line is held back to the end, an inversion.
Author: Ariwara no Narihira
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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