Yunohara ni naku ashitazu wa aga gotoku imo ni koure ya toki wakazu naku

湯の原に鳴く葦鶴は我がごとく
妹に恋ふれや時わかず鳴く

Roma-ji: Yunohara ni naku ashitazu wa aga gotoku imo ni koure ya toki wakazu naku
English Translation: On the hot-spring moor
the cranes among the reeds cry—
is it that, like me,
they are longing for their wives,
crying out at every hour?
Meaning: The cranes among the reeds that cry on the hot-spring moor—is it because, like me, they long for their wives that they cry at every hour without pause?
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 961

Headnote: "A poem composed by Lord Ōtomo, the Governor-General, on hearing cranes crying while staying at the hot spring of Sukita"
Hearing the cranes crying ceaselessly on the hot-spring moor, the poet wonders whether they too are crying out of longing for their wives, as he is. The hot spring of Sukita corresponds to today's Futsukaichi Hot Spring in Chikushino City, Fukuoka Prefecture.
Soon after going down to the Dazaifu, Tabito lost his wife, Lady Ōtomo, who had accompanied him to Tsukushi. "Longing for their wives" is thought to hold his feelings for his dead wife, and in the cries of the cranes heard at night from the hot-spring lodging he recognizes his own grief.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was the son of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and the father of Yakamochi. Toward the end of the Jinki era he went down to Tsukushi as Governor-General of the Dazaifu, and in Tenpyō 2 (730) he became a Major Counselor and returned to the capital. He died the following year, Tenpyō 3.

Like "the mountain where the stag's voice cries" in 953 of this book, this poem sets feelings of love within the cries of a living creature. Where that poem places in the background the stag calling for its mate, here the cranes' cries are laid over the poet's own longing for his wife.
The first line, "On the hot-spring moor," refers to the moor where the hot spring wells up, the area around the Sukita spring named in the headnote.
The second line, "the cranes among the reeds cry," refers to cranes crying among the reeds. It answers the "cry" of the final line, placing the cranes' cries at both the beginning and the end of the poem.
The third line, "is it that, like me," identifies the poet with the cranes.
The fourth line, "they are longing for their wives," means "is it because they long for their wives?" with "koure" in the realis form and "ya" as an interrogative binding particle, concluded by "naku" in the final line.
The final line, "crying out at every hour?" means they cry ceaselessly regardless of the hour, concluding in the attributive form in answer to the "ya" of the fourth line. Repeating "cry" from the second line, it impresses on us a grief that never ceases.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito
Source: Manyoshu
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