Tama ni nuku ōchi o ie ni uetaraba yama hototogisu karezu komu kamo

玉に貫く楝を家に植ゑたらば
山霍公鳥離れず来むかも

Roma-ji: Tama ni nuku ōchi o ie ni uetaraba yama hototogisu karezu komu kamo
English Translation: Should I plant at home
the chinaberry whose blossoms
are threaded as beads,
then the hototogisu of the hills
might never cease to visit
Meaning: If I planted at my house the chinaberry whose blossoms are strung as festival beads, would the mountain cuckoo come to visit me without fail?
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3910

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems on the hototogisu"
If one planted at home the chinaberry whose flowers are strung as festival beads, would the mountain hototogisu visit unfailingly?—a poem of eager waiting for the bird. Like the preceding poem it was sent from the old house in Nara to his brother Yakamochi in Kuni, who answered in 3913 with a hototogisu perching on chinaberry branches.
The poet, Ōtomo no Fumimochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and the younger brother of Yakamochi. He died young in 746.
The left note reads, "The above were sent on the second day of the fourth month by Ōtomo no Sukune Fumimochi from his house in Nara to his elder brother Yakamochi."

First line, "tama ni nuku": "to be threaded as beads," for the medicinal balls strung at the fifth-month festival. Poem 3984 in this book opens with the same phrase, "tama ni nuku hanatachibana o."
Second line, "ōchi o ie ni": ōchi is the old name of the chinaberry, a tree with pale purple blossoms in early summer.
Third line, "uetaraba": "if I planted it," the irrealis of the perfective tari with ba.
Fourth line, "yama hototogisu": the hototogisu of the mountains, whose coming down to the village to sing was eagerly awaited.
Fifth line, "karezu komu kamo": karu means to draw away or break off; "would it keep coming without fail?", ending in hopeful wonder.
Author: Ōtomo no Fumimochi
Source: Manyoshu
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