Kotaenu ni na yobitoyome so yobukodori saho no yamabe o nobori kudari ni

答へぬにな呼び響めそ呼子鳥
佐保の山辺を上り下りに

Roma-ji: Kotaenu ni na yobitoyome so yobukodori saho no yamabe o nobori kudari ni
English Translation: With none to answer,
do not call and make it ring,
you calling bird there,
up along the Saho hills
and down again you go.
Meaning: Though no one answers, do not call so loudly that it echoes, O calling bird, flying up and down the slopes of the Saho hills.
Commentary: Book Ten Spring Miscellaneous Poems 1828

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Birds"
This poem gently scolds the calling bird that cries out along the Saho hills though no one answers. The image of a bird calling in vain may also be read as overlapping with the poet's own loneliness, calling to someone who does not respond. As if taking up the previous poem's question, "whom do you call," it addresses the calling bird in Saho, and the two poems together form a pair.

The first line, "though none answers," uses "ni" in an adversative sense, showing the emptiness of a call that meets no reply.
The second line, "na yobitoyome so," uses the "na ... so" construction for prohibition: do not call so as to make it echo.
The third line, "calling bird," is the one addressed. It repeats the word from the preceding poem's last line, linking the two.
The fourth line, "along the Saho hillsides," takes up "into Saho" of the preceding poem and shares its setting.
The last line, "going up and down," is placed last by inversion, depicting the bird flitting about and crying restlessly.
Source: Manyoshu
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