Asagiri no yaeyama koete yobukodori naki ya na ga kuru yado mo aranaku ni

朝霧の八重山越えて呼子鳥
鳴きや汝が来る宿もあらなくに

Roma-ji: Asagiri no yaeyama koete yobukodori naki ya na ga kuru yado mo aranaku ni
English Translation: Through the morning mist
over mountains, fold on fold,
calling bird, is it
crying that you come this way,
though there is no inn for you?
Meaning: Crossing the many-layered mountains in the morning mist, do you come crying, calling bird—though you have no lodging here?
Commentary: Book Ten Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1941

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Birds"
This poem speaks to a calling bird that comes crying over range upon range of mountains in the morning mist, though it has no lodging. The image of a bird named for calling out, crying on with no house to welcome it, is overlaid with the heart of an aimless journey or the loneliness of one without a companion. Like 1945 it begins "asagiri no yaeyama koete," so the calling bird and the hototogisu form a pair.

The first line, "of the morning mist," sets the scene.
In the second line, "crossing the many-fold mountains," "yaeyama" means layers of mountains.
The third line, "calling bird," names the bird that seems to call people, appearing after poems such as 1822 in the spring section.
In the fourth line, "naki ya na ga kuru," "ya" is an interrogative particle in kakari-musubi with the attributive "kuru."
In the last line, "yado mo aranaku ni," "naku ni" is a nominalized negative with "ni": though there is no lodging. By inversion it sets the loneliness at the end.
Source: Manyoshu
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