Waga sono no ume no hotsue ni uguisu no ne ni nakinubeki koi mo suru kana - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

わが園の梅のほつえに鶯の
音になきぬべき恋もするかな

Roma-ji: Waga sono no ume no hotsue ni uguisu no ne ni nakinubeki koi mo suru kana
English Translation: In my garden
on the plum's topmost branch
the warbler sings aloud
so I too could cry aloud
from the love that fills my heart
Meaning: As the warbler sings aloud on the topmost branch of the plum tree in my garden, so I am in a love that could make me cry aloud.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 498

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Taking as its preface the warbler singing in the treetop of the garden plum, the poem sings of a love so strong it could make the poet cry aloud. The song of the warbler, a bright image of spring, is turned into the poet's own weeping voice. The device of overlaying a bird's "singing" with a person's "crying" is carried on in the next poem, 499.

First line, "In my garden": waga sono no means of the garden of my own house.
Second line, "on the plum's topmost branch": hotsue is an upper branch, the treetop.
Third line, "the warbler sings aloud": the uguisu, the bird that heralds spring, and lines one through three form a preface leading to ne ni naku in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "so I too could cry aloud": naki is a pivot word meaning both the warbler "singing" and a person "weeping." Ne ni naku means to sing or weep aloud, and nubeki means "surely about to."
Fifth line, "from the love that fills my heart": the same final line as poem 469 at the head of the book and poem 490 of this book. As the opening poem uses the cuckoo, this one uses the warbler, echoing the head poem also in taking a bird's voice as its preface.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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