Hototogisu koe o kikedo hana no e ni mada fuminarenu mono o koso omoe - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ほととぎす声を聞けど花の枝に
まだふみなれぬ物をこそ思へ

Roma-ji: Hototogisu koe o kikedo hana no e ni mada fuminarenu mono o koso omoe
English Translation: The cuckoo's voice
I have heard, and yet upon
the flowering bough
I have not yet learned to perch,
and so I brood in longing
Meaning: I have heard the cuckoo's voice, yet like a bird not yet used to perching on the flowering bough, I am not yet used to exchanging letters with you, and so I brood in longing.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 1045

Headnote: "Sent around the Fifth Month when he was Assistant Captain of the Military Guards, having begun to court her from afar."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on love sung through the things of the Fifth Month. As the cuckoo, though heard, has not yet grown used to perching on the flowering bough, the poet is not yet used to exchanging letters, and so he broods. According to the headnote, he sent it around the Fifth Month, when he was Assistant Captain of the Military Guards and had begun to court her from a distance.
The author, "The Lay Priest and Former Regent and Chancellor of Hōjōji," is Fujiwara no Michinaga. A son of the Regent Fujiwara no Kaneie, he rose to Regent and Chancellor and reached the height of power by making his daughters empresses. He built the Hōjōji temple and after taking holy orders was called the Lay Priest.
The Assistant Captain of the Military Guards was the deputy of the office responsible for guarding the palace.
The next poem is Uma no Naishi's reply to this one.
The second line of the main text reads "koe o kikedo," which does not match "koe o ba kikedo" in the kana reading line. The main text is followed here.

The first line, "hototogisu," continues from the preceding poem with the bird of the Fifth Month.
The second line, "koe o kikedo," means "though I hear its voice from afar," showing that he knows her only by report. Following the main text, the line falls one syllable short at six.
The third line, "hana no e ni," means "on the flowering bough," a figure for her dwelling.
In the fourth line, "fumi" pivots between the cuckoo treading the bough and "fumi," a letter: not yet used to perching, not yet used to exchanging letters.
In the last line, the emphatic "koso" is resolved by "omoe." Following the exchange between Kintō and Uma no Naishi on the cuckoo, this poem too sings of the cuckoo and forms an exchange with Uma no Naishi's reply in the next poem.
Author: Fujiwara no Michinaga
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Samidare wa soraoboresuru hototogisu toki ni naku ne wa hito mo togamezu
Next Poem: Hototogisu shinoburu mono o kashiwagi no morite mo koe no kikoekeru kana