Sahogawa ni nakunaru chidori nani shi kamo kawara o shinoi iya kawanoboru

佐保川に鳴くなる千鳥何しかも
川原を偲ひいや川上る

Roma-ji: Sahogawa ni nakunaru chidori nani shi kamo kawara o shinoi iya kawanoboru
English Translation: On the Saho River
you plovers that I hear calling,
why is it, I wonder,
longing for the riverbanks,
you fly ever farther upstream?
Meaning: Plovers crying on the Saho River—why is it that, longing for the riverbanks, you keep flying farther and farther upstream?
Commentary: Book Seven Miscellaneous Poems 1251

Headnote: "Question and Answer"
The poet asks the plovers crying on the Saho River why they keep flying farther upstream, as if longing for the riverbanks. It is read as an allegorical poem that, through the plovers, questions a man who keeps visiting a certain woman.
It is the first poem under the heading "Question and Answer," and the next poem is the plovers' reply. The left notes say, "The two poems above are on birds," and "The seventeen poems above come from the Old Poetry Collection," so seventeen poems from that collection begin here. Plovers on the Saho River also appear in poems 1123 and 1124 in this book. The poet is unknown.

The first line, "On the Saho River," is the same as the first line of poem 1124 in this book.
In the second line, "naru" is inference from sound: "the plovers I hear crying."
The third line, "why is it, I wonder," strengthens the question.
The fourth line, "longing for the riverbanks," means yearning for them.
The final line, "you fly ever farther upstream," takes up the question of the third line and asks the reason.
Source: Manyoshu
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