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Excerpt from よだかの星. Before the Nighthawk leaves, he stops to speak to the kingfisher and says:

「はちすずめへ、あとでよろしく云ってやって呉れ。」

I'm having trouble resolving the 呉れ with へ in this sentence.
It seems like the speaker (the Nighthawk) is saying:

"After (I leave), I will give best wishes in the direction of the hummingbird."

a.k.a. "When I'm gone, I'll send my best wishes to him".
However, I've never seen 呉れ used as "I give to you" (I've only seen it has "you give to me") so I'm unsure.

Is this a correct reading of 呉れ in this context?
Can 呉れ go both ways?

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    云ってやって呉れ。... I will give <-- Hm... くれ is the imperative form of くれる "give me" "do ~~ for me"
    – chocolate ♦
    Mar 4, 2018 at 2:07
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    he stops to speak to the hummingbird -- Hm? Wait... he stops to speak to かわせみ, not はちすずめ, right?
    – chocolate ♦
    Mar 4, 2018 at 2:12
  • Shoot, you're right. I took a break while reading the passage and must've gotten confused when I resumed reading the dialogue. Thank you for pointing it out.
    – Hyperglyph
    Mar 4, 2018 at 2:20

1 Answer 1

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Recall that 呉れる is the plain version of the polite 下さる. くれ and ください both mean 'to do for or give to the in-group' (often just the speaker). In this case, do me the favor of giving him my regards.

よろしくお伝えください and よろしく言ってくれ both mean to give someone your regards (in your place), i.e. "Tell them I said 'hi'".

はちすずめへ、To the hummingbird

あとで later

よろしく云って　＝　よろしく言って　give my regards

やって呉れ do this for me

This culminates in:

Do me (the favor of) giving my regards to the hummingbird later on.

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