Miyoshino no kisayama no ma no konure ni wa kokoda mo sawaku tori no koe kamo

み吉野の象山の際の木末には
ここだも騒く鳥の声かも

Roma-ji: Miyoshino no kisayama no ma no konure ni wa kokoda mo sawaku tori no koe kamo
English Translation: In fair Yoshino,
among the folds of Mount Kisa,
in the treetops there
how many voices clamour—
the voices of the birds
Meaning: In fair Yoshino, among the folds of Mount Kisa, how the birds clamour in the treetops, so many voices raised together!
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 924

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two envoys"
This poem captures the lively voices of many birds clamouring in the treetops of the folds of Mount Kisa in fair Yoshino. Through the bustle of birdsong it praises the vitality of the Yoshino hills and the richness of nature around the palace. It is renowned as one of the masterpieces of Akahito, a poet celebrated for landscape.
The long poem immediately before (923) is the first of "Two poems composed by Yamabe no Sukune Akahito." It praises Emperor Shōmu's palace at Yoshino as a river bend enclosed by mountains like green hedges and threaded by a clear river, and closes by saying that the courtiers will always come here. The year of composition is not recorded, but the poems are placed after Kasa no Kanamura's poems from the Yoshino progress of the fifth month of Jinki 2 (725).
Mount Kisa rises on the far bank opposite Miyataki in Yoshino, and the Kisa stream, which flows into the Yoshino River, runs at its foot.
The poet, Yamabe no Akahito, was a court poet of the early Nara period who accompanied imperial progresses, chiefly in the reign of Emperor Shōmu, and left many poems. His rank and career are unknown, but he excelled in lucid poems of landscape, and the Japanese preface to the Kokin Wakashū names him alongside Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.

The two envoys form a contrast: this poem sings of birds clamouring in the mountain treetops by day, and the next poem, 925, of plovers crying on the riverbed late at night, portraying the scenery of the Yoshino palace through the pairings of day and night, mountain and river.
In the first line, "In fair Yoshino," the prefix "mi-" is an honorific that speaks of Yoshino with reverence.
The second line, "among the folds of Mount Kisa," means in the hollows of Mount Kisa. "Ma" denotes the space between hills or the area around a mountain.
The third line, "in the treetops there," means among the tips of the branches, and the particle "wa" singles out the place from which the birdsong is heard.
The fourth line, "how many voices clamour," means "so very many are astir," with "kokoda" expressing a great number or degree.
The final line, "the voices of the birds," means "how the birds are calling," with "kamo" as a final particle of exclamation. By catching the voices rather than the birds themselves, it conveys the depth of the mountain and the multitude of birds.
Author: Yamabe no Akahito
Source: Manyoshu
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