Sawa no omo ni fuketaru tazu no hitokoe ni odorokasarete chidori naku nari

沢の面に更けたる鶴の一声に
驚かされて千鳥鳴くなり

Roma-ji: Sawa no omo ni fuketaru tazu no hitokoe ni odorokasarete chidori naku nari
English Translation: On the marsh's face,
at a single cry let loose
by a crane deep in night,
wakened, startled from their sleep,
the plovers, it seems, cry out.
Meaning: Startled awake by a single cry of a crane on the marsh deep in the night, the plovers, it seems, begin to cry.
Commentary: One Hundred Poems 1543

Headnote: "Ten Miscellaneous Poems"
The first of the ten miscellaneous poems. When a crane cries once on the marsh deep in the night, the plovers, woken by it, can be heard crying.
It catches by ear the calls of birds answering one another by the water at night. In the hush of late night, sound passes from the crane's single cry to the plovers' voices, conveying the depth of night by the water. Plovers on a winter night are also sung in 1502 among the love poems.

First line, “sawa no omo ni”: on the surface of the marsh; the line has an extra syllable.
Second line, “fuketaru tazu no”: fuketaru means late in the night, "of the crane crying deep in the night."
Third line, “hitokoe ni”: at a single cry.
Fourth line, “odorokasarete”: odoroku is to wake, and sare passive, "wakened."
Fifth line, “chidori naku nari”: nari infers from sound, "the plovers seem to cry."
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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