Koishinaba koi mo shine to ya hototogisu mono mou toki ni kinaki toyomuru

恋ひ死なば恋ひも死ねとや霍公鳥
物思ふ時に来鳴き響むる

Roma-ji: Koishinaba koi mo shine to ya hototogisu mono mou toki ni kinaki toyomuru
English Translation: If you would die of love,
then die of love, is that it,
little cuckoo,
that when I brood in thought
you come and fill the air with song
Meaning: "If you would die of love, then die of love"; is that what you mean, little cuckoo, coming to fill the air with your cries just when I am lost in brooding?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Exchange Poems of Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome 3780

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome"
He asks whether the little cuckoo means "if you would die of love, then die," crying so loudly just when he is lost in brooding. The cuckoo's cry was held to stir up longing, and its voice feels to him like a blow added to his suffering. From here the cuckoo is sung across six poems, piling up laments at the cries heard in the land of exile.
The author, Nakatomi no Yakamori, was a son of Nakatomi no Azumahito, from the Nakatomi clan in charge of the rites of the gods. He was exiled to Echizen Province for an offense, but was later pardoned and returned to the capital.
A left note reads "the above seven poems were composed by Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori expressing his thoughts through flowers and birds"; the seven poems from 3779 to 3785 of this book express his feelings through flowers and birds, six of them singing of the little cuckoo. The latter half of this book contains sixty-three poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome. According to the book's table of contents, when Yakamori took as his wife the young woman, a lady-in-waiting of the palace storehouse office, he was exiled to Echizen Province by imperial decree. The place of exile is thought to be Ajimano in Echizen, near present-day Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture.

First line, "koishinaba": "na" is the irrealis of the perfective "nu": if you would die of love.
Second line, "koi mo shine to ya": "shine" is imperative and "ya" an interrogative binding particle resolved by the attributive "toyomuru": is it that you say, die of love?
Third line, "hototogisu": the little cuckoo, which cries in early summer, its voice said to stir up longing.
Fourth line, "mono mou toki ni": when I am brooding; the same line appears in 3781, 3782, and 3784 of this book.
Fifth line, "kinaki toyomuru": "toyomu" means to make resound with cries; answering "ya" in the second line, it ends in the attributive form.
Author: Nakatomi no Yakamori
Source: Manyoshu
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