Nago no umi ni shio no hayahiba asari shi ni idemu to tazu wa ima zo naku naru

奈呉の海に潮の早干ばあさりしに
出でむと鶴は今ぞ鳴くなる

Roma-ji: Nago no umi ni shio no hayahiba asari shi ni idemu to tazu wa ima zo naku naru
English Translation: On the Sea of Nago,
once the tide has quickly ebbed,
"Let us go to feed!"—
so the cranes, it seems, are now
crying out across the shore.
Meaning: On the Sea of Nago the cranes seem to be crying now, as if saying, "When the tide ebbs early, let us go out and search for food."
Commentary: Book Eighteen 4034

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the twenty-third day of the third month in spring of the twentieth year of Tenpyō, Tanabe no Sakimaro, clerk of the Office of Sake Brewing and envoy of the Minister of the Left Tachibana, was entertained at the residence of the governor Ōtomo no Yakamochi. New poems were composed there, old ones were recited, and each guest expressed his feelings."
The poet hears the cranes crying, as though resolving to go out and feed once the tide has ebbed. From the cries heard at the banquet he imagines life on the shore of Nago, governed by the tides, and so praises the land where his host lives.
Tanabe no Sakimaro was a clerk in the Office of Sake Brewing who came to Etchū as the messenger of the Minister of the Left, Tachibana no Moroe. He was a poet of the late Man'yō period, skilled at long poems in praise of the court.
The three poems beginning with 4032 all sing of the Sea of Nago, moving step by step through the things of the shore: the boat, the waves and shells, and the tide and cranes.

First line, "Nago no umi ni": the same opening as 4032, reminding us that the setting of the sequence is the Sea of Nago.
Second line, "shio no hayahiba": "hayahiba" means "if the tide ebbs early," a hypothetical condition formed with the irrealis plus "ba."
Third line, "asari shi ni": "asari" means the searching for food by birds. It captures the habit of cranes descending to the tidal flats to feed.
Fourth line, "idemu to tazu wa": "mu" is an auxiliary of intention, used here to imagine the cranes' own thoughts.
Last line, "ima zo naku naru": "zo" is an emphatic particle and "naru," the attributive form of the auxiliary "nari" expressing inference from sound, forms a kakari-musubi construction with it. It conveys that the cranes are heard but not seen.
Author: Tanabe no Sakimaro
Source: Manyoshu
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