Satsukiyama kozue o takami hototogisu naku ne sora naru koi mo suru kana - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

五月山梢を高みほととぎす
鳴く音そらなる恋もするかな

Roma-ji: Satsukiyama kozue o takami hototogisu naku ne sora naru koi mo suru kana
English Translation: In the fifth-month hills,
since the treetops are so high,
the cuckoo's cry
falls from the sky, as does
the love that leaves me lost.
Meaning: In the hills of the fifth month, the treetops are so high that the cuckoo's cry seems to come from the sky; so too my heart is lost in the sky, in the love that I now feel.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 579

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that, just as the cuckoo's cry from the high treetops of the fifth-month hills rings from the sky, he is in a love that leaves his heart up in the air. The summer mountain scene of the upper verse serves as a preface, and the single word sora carries both "sky" and "absent-minded," turning from scene to feeling. It follows the previous poem in singing of the cuckoo.
Ki no Tsurayuki was a poet of the early Heian period, the son of Ki no Mochiyuki. He was the leading compiler of the Kokinshū and wrote its Japanese preface. He served as Governor of Tosa and is also known as the author of the Tosa Diary. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

First line, "satsukiyama": a mountain in the fifth lunar month, thick with green leaves, the season when the cuckoo sings most.
Second line, "kozue o takami": the pattern "o ... mi" expresses a cause, "because the treetops are high."
Third line, "hototogisu": like the previous poem, 578, it sings of the cuckoo. The words from the first line through "naku ne" in the fourth form a preface leading to sora.
Fourth line, "naku ne sora naru": sora is a pun on "sky," where the cuckoo's voice rings out, and "absent-minded," a heart that cannot settle.
Fifth line, "koi mo suru kana": the same final line as 561 and 565 of this book, as poems closing in the same pattern with different images recur.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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