Masugeyoshi Soga no kawara ni naku chidori ma nashi waga seko aga kouraku wa

ま菅よし宗我の川原に鳴く千鳥
間なし我が背子我が恋ふらくは

Roma-ji: Masugeyoshi Soga no kawara ni naku chidori ma nashi waga seko aga kouraku wa
English Translation: On the riverbank
of Soga, fair with sedge,
the plovers cry;
no pause, my love, no pause
in this longing of mine
Meaning: Like the plovers crying ceaselessly on the riverbank at Soga, my longing for you, my love, knows no pause.
Commentary: Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3087

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
Using the plovers crying ceaselessly on the Soga riverbank as an introduction, a woman tells her lover that her longing knows no pause. From here a series of poems on birds follows, and this poem shares its final line with the next.
The poet is unknown. Book Twelve, titled the second part of "Love Poems Exchanged Old and New," gathers love poems by people whose names have not come down to us, arranged by category.

Line one, "masugeyoshi," meaning "fair with sedge," is a pillow word for "Soga."
Line two, "Soga no kawara ni," means "on the riverbank at Soga" in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture.
Line three, "naku chidori," means "the crying plovers," and the lines up to here form an introduction leading, through their ceaseless crying, to "ma nashi."
Line four, "ma nashi waga seko," means "no pause, my love," a woman addressing a man.
Line five, "aga kouraku wa," means "in my longing." The next poem, 3088, and also 3168 end with the same line.
Author: Unknown
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Nakanaka ni hito to arazu wa kuwako ni mo naramashi mono o tama no o bakari
Next Poem: Koigoromo Kinara no yama ni naku tori no ma naku toki nashi aga kouraku wa