Hototogisu yogoe natsukashi ami sasaba hana wa sugu tomo karezu ka nakamu

霍公鳥夜声なつかし網ささば
花は過ぐとも離れずか鳴かむ

Roma-ji: Hototogisu yogoe natsukashi ami sasaba hana wa sugu tomo karezu ka nakamu
English Translation: Hototogisu,
how dear is your voice at night!
If I spread a net,
though the blossoms pass away,
would you stay on and still sing
Meaning: Hototogisu, how your voice at night draws my heart! If I spread a net, would you stay and keep singing even after the blossoms have gone?
Commentary: Book Seventeen 3917

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Six poems composed on the fifth day of the fourth month of the sixteenth year, while living alone at my old house in Heijō"
Drawn by the hototogisu's night song, the poet wonders whether, if he spread a net to keep it, it would stay and sing even after the flowers have gone. This is one of six poems Yakamochi composed on the fifth day of the fourth month of 744, living alone in his old house at Heijō, which had become a former capital as the court moved from Kuni to Naniwa. It reveals a wish, born of the loneliness of living alone, to hold back a bird that leaves when its season ends.
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 six poems were composed by Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi on the fifth day of the fourth month of the sixteenth year of Tenpyō, living alone in his old house in his home town of Heijō."

First line, "hototogisu": taking up the third line of the preceding poem, 3916, to present the theme.
Second line, "yogoe natsukashi": natsukashi means dear, drawing the heart; the poem pauses here.
Third line, "ami sasaba": "if I spread a net," supposing he caught and kept the bird. It corresponds to the last line of the next poem, 3918, "ami sasamashi o."
Fourth line, "hana wa sugu tomo": "even if the orange blossoms pass," tomo being a concessive hypothetical.
Fifth line, "karezu ka nakamu": ka is an interrogative particle bound to the attributive mu—"would you sing without leaving?" It shares the word karezu with Fumimochi's "karezu komu kamo" in 3910.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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