Chidori naku miyoshinogawa no kawaoto no yamu toki nashi ni omōyuru kimi

千鳥泣くみ吉野川の川音の
やむ時なしに思ほゆる君

Roma-ji: Chidori naku miyoshinogawa no kawaoto no yamu toki nashi ni omōyuru kimi
English Translation: Where the plovers cry,
of the fair Yoshino River
the sound of its waters—
never ceasing for a moment
are you who fill my thoughts
Meaning: Like the sound of the fair Yoshino River, where the plovers cry, which never falls silent, you are never for a moment absent from my thoughts.
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 915

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "An envoy in a certain book reads"
This poem expresses longing for someone far away: just as the sound of the Yoshino River, where plovers cry, never ceases, so the beloved is never out of the poet's thoughts. It is the first of two poems that another book attached as envoys to Kurumamochi no Chitose's long poem 913.
The poem uses the praised scene of the Yoshino River's sound as a preface and binds it to the heart that yearns for someone left behind. Taking up the long poem's ending, "since this is a journey on which I do not loosen my sash," it seems to express longing for someone at home during the journey of the progress.
The left note to this sequence reads: "The year and month of the above are unclear, but because the poems are of the same kind they are placed next. A certain book says they were composed when the Emperor made a progress to the detached palace at Yoshino in the fifth month of Yōrō 7." The date of composition is unknown, but being Yoshino poems they were placed after Kasa no Kanamura's poems from the Yoshino progress of Yōrō 7 (723), and another book records them as composed on that very progress.
The poet, Kurumamochi no Chitose, was a court poet of the early Nara period whose life is otherwise unknown. Chitose composed poems while accompanying imperial progresses in the same period as Kasa no Kanamura and Yamabe no Akahito.

The plovers in this poem appear again in 925 in this book, "on the pure riverbed the plovers cry and cry," as part of the Yoshino riverside scene, making them a bird emblematic of the banks of Yoshino.
The first line, "Where the plovers cry," modifies "the Yoshino River" that follows and sketches the riverside scene.
In the second line, "of the fair Yoshino River," the prefix "mi-" is honorific. The first two lines together present the scene of the Yoshino River.
The third line, "the sound of its waters," means "like the sound of the flowing river." The first three lines form a preface that, through the unending sound of the river, leads into "never ceasing."
The fourth line, "never ceasing for a moment," applies both to the unbroken sound of the river and to the unbroken longing, linking the preface to the main thought.
The final line, "you who fill my thoughts," means "you whom I cannot help thinking of." "Omohoyu" means to come to mind of its own accord, and ending on a noun leaves a lingering tone like an address to the beloved.
Author: Kurumamochi no Chitose
Source: Manyoshu
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