Asaide ni kinaku kaodori nare da ni mo kimi ni kouru ya toki oezu naku

朝ゐでに来鳴く貌鳥汝れだにも
君に恋ふれや時終へず鳴く

Roma-ji: Asaide ni kinaku kaodori nare da ni mo kimi ni kouru ya toki oezu naku
English Translation: At the morning weir
comes the kaodori to sing—
even you, it seems,
in love with the one I love,
calling on, whatever the hour.
Meaning: O kaodori that comes to sing at the weir in the morning—are even you in love with him, that you cry on without ceasing?
Commentary: Book Ten Spring Miscellaneous Poems 1823

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Birds"
This poem overlays the poet's own love on the kaodori that comes to the morning weir and sings without pause. By treating the bird's song as the voice of love and asking whether even a bird cries from longing, the poet brings out the endless yearning in her own heart. Like the preceding poem, it entrusts a lover's feeling to a bird, carrying the mood of love through this group of bird poems.

In the first line, "asaide ni," "ide" is a weir built to dam a stream. It sets the fresh scene of a waterside in the morning.
In the second line, "the kaodori that comes to sing," "kaodori" is the name of a bird; some take it to be the cuckoo, but it is not identified with certainty.
The third line, "even you," addresses the bird, with "dani" meaning even. By saying "even you," it hints at the depth of the poet's own longing.
In the fourth line, "are you in love with him," "ya" is an interrogative particle forming a kakari-musubi with "naku" in the last line. It asks whether love is the reason the bird cries.
The last line, "crying without end of time," means singing on regardless of the hour. It closes in the attributive "naku," answering "ya," and overlays the unceasing cry with the poet's own inexhaustible longing.
Source: Manyoshu
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