Asa ni yuku kari no naku ne wa aga gotoku mono omoere ka mo koe no kanashiki

朝に行く雁の鳴く音は我がごとく
物思へれかも声の悲しき

Roma-ji: Asa ni yuku kari no naku ne wa aga gotoku mono omoere ka mo koe no kanashiki
English Translation: Going off at dawn,
the wild geese, the sound they cry—
is it just like me
that they're lost in brooding thought,
that their voices sound so sad?
Meaning: The cry of the wild geese flying off in the morning—is it because they brood like me that their voices sound so sad?
Commentary: Book Ten Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 2137

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Wild Geese"
This poem wonders whether the cry of the geese flying off in the morning sounds so sad because they brood just as the speaker does. Overlaying the geese's voices with the speaker's own melancholy, it finds a companion of the heart in nature. Like 1892 in the spring love poems, which compared the warbler's brooding with the speaker's, the poet's brooding is projected onto the bird's voice.

The first line, "going in the morning," describes their departure.
The second line, "the geese's crying voices," names the sound.
The third line, "like me," draws the comparison.
In the fourth line, "mono omoere ka mo," "ka mo" is an interrogative particle in kakari-musubi with "kanashiki" in the last line.
The last line, "koe no kanashiki," their voices are sad, closes in the attributive form answering "ka mo."
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Akikaze ni yama tobikoyuru karigane no koe tōzakaru kumogakururashi
Next Poem: Tazugane no kesa naku nae ni karigane wa izuku sashite ka kumogakururamu