Tabibito no yadori semu no ni shimo furaba waga ko hagukume ame no tazumura

旅人の宿りせむ野に霜降らば
我が子羽ぐくめ天の鶴群

Roma-ji: Tabibito no yadori semu no ni shimo furaba waga ko hagukume ame no tazumura
English Translation: If frost should fall
on the field where the traveler
lies down for the night,
wrap my child within your wings,
O you flock of heaven's cranes.
Meaning: If frost falls on the field where the traveler sleeps, shelter my child beneath your wings, O cranes flying across the sky.
Commentary: Book Nine Love Poems 1791

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem sent by a mother to her son when the ships of the embassy to Tang set out from Naniwa to sea in the fifth year of Tenpyō, mizunoto-tori, with tanka"; envoy
A mother asks the cranes crossing the sky to wrap her child in their wings if frost falls on the field where he sleeps on his journey. Her deep love for an only son setting out on a far voyage is packed into this call to the cranes.
This is the envoy to the long poem 1790 in this book. The long poem says that the stag who courts the autumn bush clover is said to have but one fawn, and since her only child, like that fawn, is going on a journey, she hangs strings of bamboo beads, sets out a sacred jar with mulberry cloth, and prays for his safety. According to the headnote, a mother sent it to her son when the ships of the embassy to Tang left Naniwa for the open sea in the fifth year of Tenpyō (733). The author's name is not recorded.

The first line, "if frost should fall," leads to the traveler, her son going as an envoy to Tang.
The second line, "on the field where the traveler," names the field where he will camp.
The third line, "lies down for the night," completes the condition.
The fourth line, "wrap my child within your wings," uses hagukumu, of a parent bird sheltering its chicks, echoing the long poem's "my only child."
The final line, "O you flock of heaven's cranes," is a vocative ending on a noun. Where the long poem likened the son to a fawn, this poem entrusts him to cranes, pairing beast and bird.
Source: Manyoshu
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