Ashihiki no yamabe ni oreba hototogisu konoma tachikuki nakanu hi wa nashi

あしひきの山辺に居れば霍公鳥
木の間立ち潜き鳴かぬ日はなし

Roma-ji: Ashihiki no yamabe ni oreba hototogisu konoma tachikuki nakanu hi wa nashi
English Translation: Living as I do
by the foot-dragging mountains,
the hototogisu
flits and weaves among the trees—
no day passes without its song
Meaning: Since I live by the mountains, there is not a day the hototogisu does not fly in and out among the trees, singing.
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3911

Headnote: "The oranges have begun to bloom and the hototogisu flits and calls. Facing such a season, how could I not give voice to my feelings? So I have made three tanka, merely to disperse the knots of gloom"
Living near the mountains, the poet hears the hototogisu singing every day as it weaves among the trees—a poem describing his days at Kuni. On the third day of the fourth month of 741, Yakamochi, serving as a palace attendant at the new capital of Kuni, wrote these three poems in reply to the hototogisu poems his younger brother Fumimochi had sent from the old house in Nara (3909 and 3910). Where his brother wished there would be "no day unheard," he answers that here it already sings every day, conveying the early-summer charm of the capital among the hills.
The poet, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was the son of the Major Counselor Ōtomo no Tabito. Appointed Governor of Etchū in 746, he spent five years there, later serving as Junior Counselor and Governor of Inaba before rising to Middle Counselor. He is thought to have played a central role in compiling the Man'yōshū.
The left note reads, "The above were sent in reply on the third day of the fourth month by Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi, palace attendant, from the Kuni capital to his younger brother Fumimochi."

First line, "ashihiki no": a pillow word for mountains.
Second line, "yamabe ni oreba": "since I dwell by the mountains," describing the site of Kuni, ringed by hills.
Third line, "hototogisu": taking up the theme of his brother's poems.
Fourth line, "konoma tachikuki": tachikuku means to fly slipping between the trees, vividly capturing the bird's movement.
Fifth line, "nakanu hi wa nashi": "there is no day it does not sing." It corresponds to the last line of Fumimochi's 3909, "kikanu hi nakemu," answering a hope voiced as supposition with present reality—the art of exchanged poems.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Tama ni nuku ōchi o ie ni uetaraba yama hototogisu karezu komu kamo
Next Poem: Hototogisu nani no kokoro zo tachibana no tama nuku tsuki shi kinaki toyomuru