Sawabe yori kumoi ni kayou ashitazu mo uki koto are ya ne nomi nakuramu

沢辺より雲居に通ふ葦鶴も
憂きことあれや音のみ鳴くらむ

Roma-ji: Sawabe yori kumoi ni kayou ashitazu mo uki koto are ya ne nomi nakuramu
English Translation: From the marshy shore
up to the clouds they go,
the cranes of the reeds—
have they some sorrow, too,
that they only cry and cry?
Meaning: Do the cranes of the reeds, who fly from the marshes up into the clouds, also have their sorrows, that they do nothing but cry?
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 703

Headnote: illegible in the source as displayed
Even the cranes that fly freely from the marshes into the high clouds seem to have some sorrow, for they do nothing but cry. The poet wonders whether even birds that roam the sky have cares, laying his own melancholy upon their cries.
The beginnings of lines 3 and 4 are hard to read in the source as displayed and are here read ashitazu mo, uki koto are ya and ne nomi nakuramu.

Line 1 means "from the marshy shore."
Line 2 means "going to and fro to the clouds," taking up the clouds of the two preceding poems.
Line 3 means "the cranes of the reeds too," moving from geese to cranes.
Line 4 means "might they have sorrows?" ya interrogative.
Line 5 means "that they only cry aloud?" ramu conjectural.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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