Ashihiki no yatsuo no kigishi nakitoyomu asake no kasumi mireba kanashi mo

あしひきの八つ峰の雉鳴き響む
朝明の霞見れば悲しも

Roma-ji: Ashihiki no yatsuo no kigishi nakitoyomu asake no kasumi mireba kanashi mo
English Translation: On the layered peaks
of the foot-dragging mountains
pheasants' cries resound—
looking at the haze of dawn,
how sorrowful I become
Meaning: Pheasants cry out across the layered peaks, their voices echoing, and when I look at the haze of daybreak, sorrow fills me.
Commentary: Book Nineteen 4149

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems on hearing a pheasant cry at dawn"
At dawn, as the cries of pheasants echo through the layered peaks, the poet looks at the haze hanging over the hills and feels sorrow. Where the preceding poem treated the pheasant's cry as a metaphor for love, this poem broadens out from cries filling the mountains and the misty landscape into the unexplained melancholy of spring.
The auditory image of echoing cries and the visual image of dawn haze overlap, and a quiet loneliness of a spring daybreak seeps through the poem.
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, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word for mountains and peaks, here leading into "yatsuo" (layered peaks).
Second line, "yatsuo no kigishi" (pheasants on the layered peaks): "yatsuo" means peak upon peak, broadening the view from the cedar field of the preceding poem to the whole range of mountains.
Third line, "nakitoyomu" (crying and echoing), describes the pheasants' voices ringing across the peaks and modifies "asake" below in the attributive form.
Fourth line, "asake no kasumi" (the haze of dawn): "asake" means daybreak, and the scene shifts to haze enveloping the echoing space.
Fifth line, "mireba kanashi mo" (looking, I am sad): "mo" is an emotive final particle, closing with a frank expression of the sorrow that arises from gazing at the scene.
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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