Satonaka ni naku naru kake no yobitatete itaku wa nakanu komorizuma wa mo

里中に鳴くなる鶏の呼び立てて
いたくは泣かぬ隠り妻はも

Roma-ji: Satonaka ni naku naru kake no yobitatete itaku wa nakanu komorizuma wa mo
English Translation: Like the cock that crows
in the middle of the village,
calling out aloud,
you do not cry out in grief,
O my wife kept hidden away
Meaning: Never calling out aloud like the cock that crows in the village, you do not weep openly, my wife kept hidden away.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2803

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The speaker tenderly regards a hidden wife who, unlike the cock crowing loudly in the village, bears her sorrow without crying aloud. The poem holds a man's compassion for a wife who guards their secret bond from others' eyes and endures her pain without showing it.
This is one of the sequence set upon birds, following the mountain pheasant of the preceding poem with a village cock. A cock also appears in poem 2800, "akatoki to kake wa naku nari," but here it is not the bird that announces dawn; it is a bird that crows loudly, set against the silent endurance of the wife.
The original text notes a variant, "one version says: sato toyome naku naru kake no." Here the main text, "satonaka ni naku naru kake no," has been followed. In the variant the cock's crowing makes the whole village ring, stressing the loudness of its cry still more.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "satonaka ni": "in the village," setting the scene in a place where people live.
Second line, "naku naru kake no": "the cock that is crowing." "Naru" is the attributive form of the auxiliary "nari," which infers from sound, telling that the cock's cry is heard. The first two lines form a preface, the crowing of the cock leading into "yobitatete."
Third line, "yobitatete": "calling out aloud," which leads on to "itaku wa nakanu." The cock's "naku," to crow, echoes the human "naku," to weep.
Fourth line, "itaku wa nakanu": "does not weep aloud." The particle "wa" singles out the weeping in order to deny it, picturing a woman who suppresses her voice and endures. "Nu" is the attributive form of the negative "zu," modifying "komorizuma."
Fifth line, "komorizuma wa mo": "O my hidden wife." "Komorizuma" is a wife who stays hidden at home away from others' eyes, one not openly acknowledged, and "wa mo" is a final particle of deep feeling, closing the poem after the noun with profound emotion.
Source: Manyoshu
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