Yogutachi ni nezamete oreba kawase tome kokoro mo shino ni naku chidori kamo

夜ぐたちに寝覚めて居れば川瀬尋め
心もしのに鳴く千鳥かも

Roma-ji: Yogutachi ni nezamete oreba kawase tome kokoro mo shino ni naku chidori kamo
English Translation: Late into the night
when I lie awake, wakeful,
seeking river shallows,
till my very heart wilts—
the plovers crying out
Meaning: Waking deep in the night and lying there, I hear the plovers crying as they search the river shallows, so plaintively that my heart wilts.
Commentary: Book Nineteen 4146

Headnote: "Two poems on hearing plovers cry in the night"
Waking late in the night, the poet hears plovers crying as they seek the shallows of the river, and their voices make his heart droop. The solitude of the poet listening in the dark and the plaintive voices of the birds melt together.
The phrase in the fourth line, "kokoro mo shino ni" (till my heart wilts), is the same as in Kakinomoto no Hitomaro's "Sea of Ōmi, plovers of the evening waves, when you cry my heart wilts and I think of the past" (Book Three, 266), and seems to draw on that precedent of a heart stirred by the plover's cry.
The poet, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was the son of the Grand Counselor Ōtomo no Tabito. From 746 he served as Governor of Etchū, living at the provincial headquarters in what is now Fushiki, Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture. He is regarded as the leading poet of the Nara period and is thought to have played a central role in compiling the Man'yōshū.

First line, "yogutachi ni" (late in the night): "yogutachi" means the night wearing on.
Second line, "nezamete oreba" (as I lie awake), sets the scene of waking and staying up, in which the poet hears the plovers.
Third line, "kawase tome" (seeking the river shallows): "tomu" means to search for, describing the plovers moving along the shallows and crying as they look for food or a resting place.
Fourth line, "kokoro mo shino ni" (till my heart wilts), uses Hitomaro's phrase to deepen the pathos.
Fifth line, "naku chidori kamo" (ah, the crying plovers): "kamo" expresses emotion, closing with the poet's feelings directed toward the birds. It is taken up by "naku kawachidori" (the river plovers crying) in the next poem.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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