Yukue naku ari wataru tomo hototogisu naki shi wataraba kaku ya shinowamu

ゆくへなくありわたるとも霍公鳥
鳴きし渡らばかくや偲はむ

Roma-ji: Yukue naku ari wataru tomo hototogisu naki shi wataraba kaku ya shinowamu
English Translation: Though I live my days
lost, with no way out of gloom,
if the cuckoo comes
singing as it passes by,
will I long for it like this?
Meaning: Though I go on living with nowhere to turn my thoughts, if the cuckoo passes by singing, will I be moved to long for it like this?
Commentary: Book Eighteen 4090

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem composed on hearing a cuckoo call far off while sitting alone inside the curtained tent [with short poems]." "Envoy."
The poet wonders whether, though he lives on with no way to dispel his gloom, he will be moved like this whenever the cuckoo passes singing. It is an envoy to the long poem composed when he sat alone within a curtained enclosure and heard a cuckoo far away, and it sings of how the bird's voice stirs a heavy heart.
Ōtomo no Yakamochi was the son of Ōtomo no Tabito, and from 746 he served as governor of Etchū. He is believed to have played a central role in compiling the Man'yōshū, and this book has the character of a poetic diary of his years in Etchū.
According to the left note, the long poem and its three envoys, four poems in all, were composed on the tenth of the fifth month of 749.

First line, "yukue naku": "with no destination," "hopelessly," expressing feelings with no outlet.
Second line, "ari wataru tomo": "ari wataru" means to go on living in the same state, and "tomo" is concessive.
Third line, "hototogisu": taking up the cuckoo of the long poem, it sets the bird at the center of the envoy.
Fourth line, "naki shi wataraba": "shi" is emphatic, and the irrealis plus "ba" forms a hypothetical condition: "if it should pass by singing."
Last line, "kaku ya shinowamu": "ya" is an interrogative binding particle completed by "mu." "Shinou" means to be drawn to and cherish, expressing how the bird's voice moves the heart.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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