Yami no yo ni naku naru tazu no yoso nomi ni kikitsutsu ka aramu au to wa nashi ni

闇の夜に鳴くなる鶴の外のみに
聞きつつかあらむ逢ふとはなしに

Roma-ji: Yami no yo ni naku naru tazu no yoso nomi ni kikitsutsu ka aramu au to wa nashi ni
English Translation: In the pitch-dark night
cranes are crying, I can hear,
only from afar;
shall I only hear of you,
never meeting you at all
Meaning: Like cranes crying unseen in the dark of night, shall I only hear of you from afar, without ever meeting you?
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 592

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twenty-four poems sent by Lady Kasa to Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi"
With cranes crying unseen in the dark as its preface, she laments that she may only hear of him from afar without ever meeting him. The cranes, heard but not seen, stand for a lover known only through report.
The author, Lady Kasa, was a woman poet of the Nara period who sent many love poems to Ōtomo no Yakamochi. Little else is known of her.

First line, "In the pitch-dark night," conveys a darkness where nothing can be seen.
Second line, "cranes are crying, I can hear," uses naru, the hearsay auxiliary: cranes I hear crying.
Third line, "only from afar," means only at a distance; the first three lines work as a preface, conveying a voice heard far off.
Fourth line, "shall I only hear of you," uses the questioning ka: shall I go on merely hearing? It closes in the attributive of mu, and the poem breaks after this line.
Fifth line, "never meeting you at all," gives by inversion the heart of her lament.
Author: Lady Kasa
Source: Manyoshu
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