Hototogisu aida shimashi oke na ga nakeba a ga mou kokoro ita mo sube nashi

霍公鳥間しまし置け汝が鳴けば
我が思ふ心いたもすべなし

Roma-ji: Hototogisu aida shimashi oke na ga nakeba a ga mou kokoro ita mo sube nashi
English Translation: Little cuckoo,
leave a little while between,
for when you cry out
this longing heart of mine
is utterly beyond help
Meaning: Little cuckoo, leave a little pause between your cries, for when you cry, this longing heart of mine is utterly beyond help.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Exchange Poems of Nakatomi no Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome 3785

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems exchanged between Nakatomi no Ason Yakamori and Sano no Otogami no Otome"
He calls to the little cuckoo to leave a pause between its cries, for when it cries his longing heart is beyond all help. Toward the cuckoo he reproached in the preceding poem, he here modestly asks only that it pause, expressing a heart unable to bear the pain of love. It is the poem that closes Book Fifteen: whereas 3578 at the head of the book was a wife's lament at parting, likened to the image of water birds, the book ends with a husband's poem calling to a bird and pleading the pain of love, so that the whole book is threaded through with the laments of spouses living apart.
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, "hototogisu": an address to the little cuckoo. With "sudori" (shore birds) in 3578 at the head of the book, birds are placed at the book's beginning and end.
Second line, "aida shimashi oke": "aida" is an interval of time and "shimashi" a little while: he commands it to pause a while between cries. The poem breaks after the second line.
Third line, "na ga nakeba": "na" means you: when you cry.
Fourth line, "a ga mou kokoro": my heart that broods in longing.
Fifth line, "ita mo sube nashi": "ita mo" means exceedingly and "sube nashi" helpless: utterly beyond help, the poem ends.
Author: Nakatomi no Yakamori
Source: Manyoshu
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