Yamato ni wa nakite ka kuramu hototogisu na ga naku goto ni naki hito omōyu

大和には鳴きてか来らむ霍公鳥
汝が鳴くごとになき人思ほゆ

Roma-ji: Yamato ni wa nakite ka kuramu hototogisu na ga naku goto ni naki hito omōyu
English Translation: Unto Yamato
do you come there singing too,
hototogisu?
every time you sing your song
those now gone come to my mind.
Meaning: Do you fly singing to Yamato too, O hototogisu? Each time you sing, I think of those who are gone.
Commentary: Book Ten Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1956

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Birds"
This poem says that each time it hears the hototogisu sing, it recalls someone who has died. The hototogisu was also thought of as a bird that travels to and from the land of the dead, and its voice awakens the remembrance of the departed. The opening question, whether it comes singing to Yamato, suggests that the poet is somewhere away from Yamato. Within the summer bird group, it sings of the hototogisu's voice with an elegiac feeling.

The first line, "to Yamato," suggests that the poet is outside Yamato.
In the second line, "nakite ka kuramu," "ka" is an interrogative particle in kakari-musubi with the attributive "ramu." The poem breaks here.
The third line, "hototogisu," is the one addressed.
The fourth line, "each time you sing," marks the recurrence.
In the last line, "naki hito omōyu," "naki hito" means the dead and "omōyu" to come to mind. The echo of "naku," sing, and "naki," gone, binds voice and remembrance at the close.
Source: Manyoshu
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