Aki no ta no hota o karigane kurakeku ni yo no hodoro ni mo nakiwataru kamo

秋の田の穂田を雁がね暗けくに
夜のほどろにも鳴き渡るかも

Roma-ji: Aki no ta no hota o karigane kurakeku ni yo no hodoro ni mo nakiwataru kamo
English Translation: Over autumn fields,
over the ripening ears, the geese,
though it is still dark,
even at the pale of night,
cross over crying as they go
Meaning: Over the autumn fields with their ripening ears, the wild geese cross crying in the darkness, even as the night begins to pale.
Commentary: Book Eight Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 1539

Headnote: "Two poems composed by the Emperor"
Over autumn fields where the ears have come out, wild geese cross crying even in the darkness before dawn. The voices of the geese heard in the dark convey the stillness of the harvest season and the deepening of autumn.
"The Emperor" in the headnote is taken to be Emperor Shōmu. The author, Emperor Shōmu, was a son of Emperor Monmu and reigned in the Nara period. A devout Buddhist, he built the Great Buddha of Tōdaiji.

The first line names the fields in the season of harvest.
The second line means "over the fields in ear, the geese"; "hota o" marks the place the geese cross.
The third line means "though it is dark," showing that night has not yet fully lifted.
In the fourth line, "hodoro" means the time when night begins to pale.
The final line, with the exclamatory "kamo," expresses wonder at the geese's voices ringing through the dark. The next poem also sings of the geese's cry, so the Emperor's two poems catch the deepening of autumn through the voices of geese.
Author: Emperor Shōmu
Source: Manyoshu
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