Asu no yoi awazarame ya mo ashihiki no yamabiko toyome yobitate naku mo

明日の宵逢はざらめやもあしひきの
山彦響め呼びたて鳴くも

Roma-ji: Asu no yoi awazarame ya mo ashihiki no yamabiko toyome yobitate naku mo
English Translation: Tomorrow evening
will you not meet her after all?
Yet through the foot-dragging
hills you set the echoes ringing,
calling, calling out to her.
Meaning: Will you not meet her tomorrow evening? Yet you cry out, calling for her, setting the mountain echoes ringing.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1762

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem on a calling stag, with tanka"; envoy
Though the stag will surely meet his mate tomorrow evening, he calls for her now, making the mountain echo. The poem overlays the heart of a lover onto the plaintive cry of a stag who cannot wait.
This is the envoy to the long poem 1761 in this book. The long poem describes a stag on the Mikaki hills facing the sacred Kamunabi mountain of Mimoro, calling out to make the autumn bush clover his wife and making the echoes ring as he regrets the coming dawn. The lower verse repeats the long poem's closing lines exactly. The left note records an account attributing the poem to Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Jitō and Monmu. The left note records only one account attributing the poem to him, so the authorship is uncertain.

The first line, "tomorrow evening," sets the time of meeting.
The second line, "will you not meet her after all?" is rhetorical, using me, the realis of mu, with yamo. The poem pauses here.
The third line, "yet through the foot-dragging," renders ashihiki no, a pillow word for mountain.
The fourth line, "hills you set the echoes ringing," is identical to a line of the long poem.
The final line, "calling, calling out to her," ends with the exclamatory mo, repeating the long poem's closing line.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (according to one account)
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Okami ni kumo tachinobori shigure furi nuretōru tomo ware kaerame ya
Next Poem: Kurahashi no yama o takami ka yogomori ni idekuru tsuki no katamachi kataki