Minatokaze samuku fukurashi Nago no e ni tsuma yobikawashi tazu sawa ni naku

港風寒く吹くらし奈呉の江に
妻呼び交し鶴多に鳴く

Roma-ji: Minatokaze samuku fukurashi Nago no e ni tsuma yobikawashi tazu sawa ni naku
English Translation: The wind off the harbor
must be blowing cold out there:
in the bay of Nago,
calling to their mates by turns,
the cranes are crying out
Meaning: The harbor wind must be blowing cold: in the inlet of Nago, the cranes are crying and crying, calling to their mates.
Commentary: Book Seventeen 4018

Headnote: none (continuing from the preceding poem; there is no title; the left note reads, "The above four poems: twenty-ninth day of the first month, spring, of the twentieth year of Tenpyō, Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi")
The harbor wind must be cold, for in the inlet of Nago cranes are crying, calling to their mates—a poem on a winter inlet. This is one of four poems Yakamochi composed in Etchū on the twenty-ninth day of the first month of 748. Opening, like the preceding poem, with the inferential rashi, it shifts the gaze from the fishermen's boats to the cranes in the inlet, capturing living things in the cold wind.
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.
A variant for the last line is noted: "tazu sawaku nari," "I hear the cranes clamoring," catching their cries by ear.

First line, "minatokaze": the wind blowing over a harbor at a river mouth.
Second line, "samuku fukurashi": "it must be blowing cold," pairing the two poems in the same form as "itaku fukurashi" in the preceding poem, 4017. The poem pauses here.
Third line, "Nago no e ni": the inlet of Nago, the same place as "the Nago fishermen" of the preceding poem.
Fourth line, "tsuma yobikawashi": "male and female calling to each other." The chōka 4006 also sings of "shore birds clamoring as they call their mates."
Fifth line, "tazu sawa ni naku": tazu means crane and sawa ni "in great numbers, incessantly." The variant reads "tazu sawaku nari."
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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