Ise no umi yu nakikuru tazu no otodoro mo kimi ga kikosaba are koime ya mo

伊勢の海ゆ鳴き来る鶴の音どろも
君が聞こさば我れ恋ひめやも

Roma-ji: Ise no umi yu nakikuru tazu no otodoro mo kimi ga kikosaba are koime ya mo
English Translation: Like the crane that flies
crying across Ise's sea,
if even your word
you would only let me hear,
would I long for you like this?
Meaning: Like the cry of the crane that comes calling over the sea of Ise, if only you would let me hear even a word from you, would I be pining for you like this?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2805

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Like the cry of the crane that comes calling across the sea of Ise, if only her lover would send even a word, she would not suffer so in love: this is a woman's poem of resentment toward a lover who has fallen silent. In the crane's cry, carrying far, she sees her own waiting for a message that never arrives.
This is one of the sequence set upon birds, following the teal of the preceding poem with the crane. Where the preceding poem waits for a lover's visit, this one laments that not even a message comes, so the waiting heart sinks one step deeper.
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, "Ise no umi yu": "from the sea of Ise." "Yu" is an ancient case particle marking a starting point or route, and the line runs to six syllables, one over the norm.
Second line, "nakikuru tazu no": "of the crane that comes crying." The crane is called by its poetic name "tazu." The first two lines form a preface, the crane's cry leading into "oto," sound.
Third line, "otodoro mo": a word whose meaning is not settled, though it is often taken to mean news or a message. The particle "mo" carries the sense of "if only a message."
Fourth line, "kimi ga kikosaba": "if you would let me hear." "Kikosu" is an honorific of "to speak," here meaning to send word. "Ba" after the irrealis form expresses a supposition.
Fifth line, "are koime ya mo": "would I long for you? No, I would not." "Me" is the realis form of the conjectural "mu," and together with "ya mo" it forms a rhetorical question, laden with resentment at the present silence.
Source: Manyoshu
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