Hototogisu naku koe kiku ya unohana no sakichiru oka ni kuzu hiku otome

霍公鳥鳴く声聞くや卯の花の
咲き散る岡に葛引く娘女

Roma-ji: Hototogisu naku koe kiku ya unohana no sakichiru oka ni kuzu hiku otome
English Translation: Hototogisu—
do you hear its singing voice
where unohana
bloom and scatter on the hill,
maidens pulling kudzu vines?
Meaning: Do you hear the song of the hototogisu, you maidens pulling kudzu vines on the hill where the deutzia blossoms bloom and scatter?
Commentary: Book Ten Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1942

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Birds"
This poem calls out to maidens pulling kudzu on a hill where deutzia blooms and scatters, asking whether they hear the hototogisu's song. The figures of girls at work in the summer fields become one with deutzia and hototogisu, emblems of early summer, painting a bright summer landscape. The pairing of hototogisu and deutzia is common in summer poems and also appears in 1945 and elsewhere.

The first line, "hototogisu," names the summer bird.
In the second line, "naku koe kiku ya," "ya" is an interrogative particle, making a question addressed to them. The poem breaks here.
The third line, "unohana," is the deutzia, which bears white flowers in early summer.
The fourth line, "on the hill where they bloom and scatter," shows where the maidens are working.
The last line, "maidens pulling kudzu," refers to girls pulling kudzu vines for their fiber, closing in the form of an inverted address.
Source: Manyoshu
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