Kokoro naki tori ni zo arikeru hototogisu mono mou toki ni nakubeki mono ka

心なき鳥にぞありける霍公鳥
物思ふ時に鳴くべきものか

Roma-ji: Kokoro naki tori ni zo arikeru hototogisu mono mou toki ni nakubeki mono ka
English Translation: A heartless bird
is what you are, I find,
little cuckoo;
when I am lost in brooding
is that a time to cry
Meaning: What a heartless bird you are, little cuckoo! Is this any time to cry, when I am lost in brooding?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Exchange Poems of Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome 3784

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome"
He reproaches the little cuckoo: what a heartless bird, crying when he is lost in brooding! He censures its voice, which stirs up longing, as the act of one with no regard for human hearts. His resentment toward the cuckoo grows steadily through the sequence, and here he goes so far as to call it "a heartless bird."
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, "kokoro naki": "kokoro nashi" means lacking consideration, unfeeling.
Second line, "tori ni zo arikeru": "zo" is a binding particle resolved by the attributive "keru" (kakarimusubi); "keri" expresses realization: you are such a bird. The poem breaks after the second line.
Third line, "hototogisu": naming what the "bird" of the second line is, the little cuckoo, by inversion.
Fourth line, "mono mou toki ni": when I am brooding, a line repeated through the sequence.
Fifth line, "nakubeki mono ka": "beki" expresses what is proper and "mono ka" is rhetorical: is it right to cry? Surely not, the poem ends in reproach.
Author: Nakatomi no Yakamori
Source: Manyoshu
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