Tachiizuru nagori ariake no tsukikage ni itodo katarau hototogisu kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

立ち出づる名残ありあけの月影に
いとど語らふほととぎすかな

Roma-ji: Tachiizuru nagori ariake no tsukikage ni itodo katarau hototogisu kana
English Translation: As you set out, there
lingers regret, and in the light
of the dawn-left moon
all the more they call and call,
the cuckoos, as if to talk!
Meaning: In the light of the lingering dawn moon, as regret lingers at your departure, how the cuckoos call to one another all the more!
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1487

Headnote: "Sent from among the ladies of the Kamo Priestess at dawn, when Iemichi, Intendant of the Left Gate Guards, had stayed at the shrine lodge as festival envoy while he was a Middle Captain."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence on summer. In the light of the dawn moon, as regret lingers at the envoy's departure, the cuckoos call to one another all the more. According to the headnote, it was sent from among the ladies of the Kamo Priestess at dawn when Fujiwara no Iemichi, then a Middle Captain, stayed at the shrine lodge as envoy for the Kamo Festival.
The author is "anonymous," and the name has not come down to us.
The shrine lodge was the lodging at Upper Kamo where the Kamo Priestess and imperial envoys stayed during the Kamo Festival.
Iemichi's reply to this poem is placed as the next poem.

The first line, "tachiizuru," refers to setting out from the shrine lodge. It shows the dawn parting as the festival envoy departs.
In the second line, "nagori ariake no," "ariake" plays on "ari," there is lingering regret, and "ariake," the moon remaining at dawn. It expresses in one sweep the heart that regrets the parting and the moon at daybreak.
The third line, "tsukikage ni," means "in the light of the dawn moon."
In the fourth line, "itodo katarau," "itodo" means "all the more." Like "hono kataraishi" in the preceding poem, the cuckoos' calling is expressed as "katarau," talking together.
The last line, "hototogisu kana," closes with the exclamatory "kana." Following Princess Shokushi's poem recalling the cuckoo of her days as priestess, it sets the cuckoo at dawn at the same shrine lodge.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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