Asu yori wa tsugite kikoemu hototogisu hitoyo no kara ni koi wataru kamo

明日よりは継ぎて聞こえむ霍公鳥
一夜のからに恋ひわたるかも

Roma-ji: Asu yori wa tsugite kikoemu hototogisu hitoyo no kara ni koi wataru kamo
English Translation: From tomorrow on
we will hear it without end,
the hototogisu—
yet for a single night's sake
I keep on longing for it.
Meaning: From tomorrow on we will hear the cuckoo again and again, yet for the sake of this one night I go on longing for it.
Commentary: Book Eighteen 4069

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Four poems from a banquet at the residence of the secretary Kume no Ason Hironawa on the first day of the fourth month."
The poet says that although the cuckoo will be heard continually from tomorrow on, he goes on yearning for it just for the sake of a single night's wait. Taking up Yakamochi's hope for the bird's first song the next morning, he frankly expresses his impatience and closes the four banquet poems.
Noto no Otomi was the acting district clerk of Hakui. The acting district clerk was a post equivalent to an apprentice to the district clerk, and at the time the province of Noto had been merged into Etchū. The poem shows that local officials too joined the banquets and composed poems.

First line, "asu yori wa": taking up "akemu ashita wa" from the preceding poem, it looks ahead from tomorrow on.
Second line, "tsugite kikoemu": "tsugite" means "continually," and "mu" is conjectural, "will be heard continually."
Third line, "hototogisu": all four banquet poems place the cuckoo in the third line, and this is the fourth of them.
Fourth line, "hitoyo no kara ni": "kara" expresses cause, "on account of a single night." The many days from tomorrow on are set against a single night.
Last line, "koi wataru kamo": "wataru" means to continue over time, and "kamo" is an exclamatory particle. It ends with the feeling that waiting even one night is hard to bear.
Author: Noto no Otomi
Source: Manyoshu
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