Furusato no narashi no oka no hototogisu kototsuge yarishi ika ni tsugeki ya

故郷の奈良思の岡の霍公鳥
言告げ遣りしいかに告げきや

Roma-ji: Furusato no narashi no oka no hototogisu kototsuge yarishi ika ni tsugeki ya
English Translation: In our old home place,
on the hill of Narashi,
the cuckoo, that bird,
I sent it with a message:
how did it tell you, I wonder?
Meaning: I sent a message to you by the cuckoo of Narashi Hill in our old home; how did it tell you, I wonder?
Commentary: Book Eight Summer Love Poems 1506

Headnote: "A poem given by the Elder Daughter of Ōtomo of Tamura to her younger sister, the Elder Daughter of Sakanoue"
The poet asks how the cuckoo of Narashi Hill in their old home, to which she entrusted a message for her sister, delivered it. The affection between sisters is expressed through the conceit, common in love poems, of the cuckoo as messenger.
The author, the Elder Daughter of Ōtomo of Tamura, was a daughter of Ōtomo no Sukunamaro and an elder half-sister of the Elder Daughter of Sakanoue. She is called by this name because she lived in the village of Tamura.

The first line, "furusato," means a place where one once lived, a familiar village.
The second line names a hill in the Nara area.
The third line names the bird entrusted with the message. Following 1498 and 1505 of this book, poems making the cuckoo a messenger stand in a row.
The fourth line means "that I sent with a message," taking the attributive form with the past "shi," and the poem pauses here.
The final line adds the interrogative "ya" to the past "ki," asking how it told her.
Author: Ōtomo no Tamura no Ōiratsume
Source: Manyoshu
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