Ima mo kamo ōki no yama ni hototogisu naki toyomuramu ware nakeredomo

今もかも大城の山に霍公鳥
鳴き響むらむ我れなけれども

Roma-ji: Ima mo kamo ōki no yama ni hototogisu naki toyomuramu ware nakeredomo
English Translation: Even now, perhaps,
on the mountain of Ōki
the cuckoo, you bird,
is filling the air with song,
though I am no longer there
Meaning: Even now, I wonder, is the cuckoo filling Mount Ōki with its song, though I am no longer there?
Commentary: Book Eight Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1474

Headnote: "A poem by Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue thinking of Mount Ōki in Tsukushi"
The poet wonders whether the cuckoo still sings loudly on Mount Ōki in Tsukushi, where she once lived. Having been at Dazaifu with her brother Ōtomo no Tabito, she composed this after returning to the capital, longing for Tsukushi; she turns her thoughts of days gone by to a bird that sings on unchanged even though she is gone.
The author, Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue, was a daughter of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and a half-sister of Ōtomo no Tabito. She was the aunt of Ōtomo no Yakamochi and later also his mother-in-law, and she left many poems in the Man'yōshū.

The first line, "even now, perhaps," expresses a surmise that corresponds with "ramu" in the fourth line. 1458 of this book opens with the same line, likewise imagining the present in a faraway place.
The second line names the mountain of Ōno Castle north of Dazaifu. Following 1472 and 1473, where people at Dazaifu sang of the cuckoo, this poem imagines from the capital the cuckoo of those same Tsukushi mountains.
The third line recalls the voice of the bird she heard in Tsukushi.
The fourth line, with the present conjectural "ramu," imagines it singing loudly now.
The final line, "though I am no longer there," lets loneliness seep through the contrast between unchanging nature and herself who has left.
Author: Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
Source: Manyoshu
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