Tsukubane ni waga yukeriseba hototogisu yamabiko toyome nakamashi ya sore

筑波嶺に我が行けりせば霍公鳥
山彦響め鳴かましやそれ

Roma-ji: Tsukubane ni waga yukeriseba hototogisu yamabiko toyome nakamashi ya sore
English Translation: To Tsukuba's peak
had I only made my way,
would the cuckoo there,
setting the mountain echoes ringing,
have sung for me, that bird?
Meaning: Had I gone to Mount Tsukuba, would the cuckoo there have sung for me, setting the mountain echoes ringing?
Commentary: Book Eight Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1497

Headnote: "A poem regretting not having climbed Mount Tsukuba"
Regretting that he did not climb Mount Tsukuba, the poet wonders whether, had he gone, he might have heard the cuckoo sing, setting the mountain echoes ringing. His lingering regret for the mountain he did not visit is expressed as a supposition. The poem stands last among the summer miscellaneous poems.
The note says, "The above poem appears among the poems of Takahashi no Muraji Mushimaro"; since it was included in his collection, it is regarded as his work. The author, Takahashi no Mushimaro, was a poet of the early Nara period who is thought to have been posted to Hitachi Province and left many poems on legends and local scenes.

The first line names Mount Tsukuba in Hitachi Province.
The second line is a counterfactual condition formed by "se," the irrealis of the past auxiliary "ki," with "ba": "had I gone."
The third line names the bird that would have sung on Mount Tsukuba.
The fourth line, "setting the echoes ringing," imagines the cuckoo's voice filling the mountain.
The final line adds the interrogative "ya" to the counterfactual "mashi," asking "would it have sung?" and points to the cuckoo with "sore." By closing the summer miscellaneous poems with a poem imagining the voice of a mountain he never visited, the book leaves a lingering resonance over the summer sequence.
Author: Takahashi no Mushimaro
Source: Manyoshu
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