Inukami no toko no yama naru isayagawa isa to o kikose waga na norasu na

犬上の鳥籠の山なる不知哉川
いさとを聞こせ我が名告らすな

Roma-ji: Inukami no toko no yama naru isayagawa isa to o kikose waga na norasu na
English Translation: At Inukami
by the hill of Toko flows
Isaya River:
"I don't know," so you must say,
and never speak out my name
Meaning: Like the Isaya River by the hill of Toko in Inukami, please say only, "Well, I don't know." Do not speak my name.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2710

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Even if people ask about the two of them, the speaker asks the partner to answer, "Well, I don't know," and never to reveal the speaker's name. The fear of rumors about their love is expressed within a light preface built on place names.
Expressing feelings through the name of a river, the poem draws from the sound "isaya" in the name Isaya River the word "isa," used to feign ignorance. Poem 487 in Book Four has the same upper verse, "Ōmiji no toko no yama naru isayagawa," suggesting that this pairing of place names was widely familiar. The Kokin Wakashū's group of deleted poems also includes a poem of almost the same spirit, with the river called the Natori River.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not been handed down.

First line, "inukami no": "of Inukami," a district in Ōmi Province, near present-day Hikone in Shiga Prefecture.
Second line, "toko no yama naru": "that lies by the hill of Toko." The hill of Toko stood in Inukami District, and "naru" is the attributive form of the auxiliary "nari" expressing existence.
Third line, "isayagawa": the name of a river flowing near the hill of Toko, thought to be near Hikone. The lines up to here form a preface, leading through the sound "isaya" to "isa" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "isa to o kikose": "please say, 'Well, I don't know.'" "O" is an interjectory particle, and "kikose" is the imperative of "kikosu," the honorific of "iu" (to say).
Fifth line, "waga na norasu na": "do not speak my name." "Norasu" is "noru" (to tell) with the honorific "su," and "na" expresses prohibition.
Source: Manyoshu
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