Taga misogi yūtsukedori ka karakoromo tatsuta no yama ni orihaete naku - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

誰がみそぎゆふつけ鳥か唐衣
たつたの山にをりはへて鳴く

Roma-ji: Taga misogi yūtsukedori ka karakoromo tatsuta no yama ni orihaete naku
English Translation: For whose purification
was this cock hung with mulberry cloth?
Like Chinese robes cut,
on the hill of Tatsuta
it cries on and on, drawn out.
Meaning: For whose purification rite is this rooster adorned with mulberry-bark cloth? On Mount Tatsuta it keeps crowing, its voice drawn out long, like cloth woven on and on.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 995

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Hearing a rooster crowing on and on at Mount Tatsuta, the poet asks for whose purification rite this bird hung with mulberry-bark cloth might be. Picturing the cock adorned with the cloth used in purification, the poem strings together words associated with robes, from "Chinese robe" to "cut" and "weave on," in a display of technique.
Following the previous poem, 994, it too sings of Mount Tatsuta.
The author is recorded as anonymous, and the name has not come down to us.

The first line, "for whose purification," refers to misogi, a rite of cleansing the body with water to remove sin and pollution.
The second line, "was this cock hung with mulberry cloth?", refers to yūtsukedori; the name is said to come from the custom of tying mulberry-bark cloth to roosters and holding rites at the four barriers of the capital in troubled times. Ka is interrogative, and the poem breaks here.
The third line, "like Chinese robes cut," is karakoromo, a pillow word for tatsu, "to cut" cloth.
The fourth line, "on the hill of Tatsuta," contains the pivot word tatsu, "to cut" cloth and the place name Tatsuta. It is the same mountain as in the previous poem, 994.
The last line, "it cries on and on, drawn out," uses orihaete, "stretching time out," with an overtone of oriheau, "weaving on," an associated word for cloth.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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