Ikubaku no ta o tsukureba ka hototogisu shide no taosa o asana asana yobu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いくばくの田を作ればかほととぎす
しでの田長を朝な朝な呼ぶ

Roma-ji: Ikubaku no ta o tsukureba ka hototogisu shide no taosa o asana asana yobu
English Translation: How many rice fields
can it be that you must tend,
little cuckoo,
calling for the field-master
morning after morning?
Meaning: How vast must the paddies be that you farm, little cuckoo, that you call for your "shide no taosa," your field-master, every single morning?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Forms 1013

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Taking "shide no taosa," another name for the cuckoo, as a cry summoning the "taosa," the overseer of rice planting, the poet teases the bird: can its fields really be so large? The humorous linking of the cuckoo, which sings in planting season, with farm work gives the poem its haikai flavor.
The author, "Fujiwara no Toshiyuki Ason," is Fujiwara no Toshiyuki. The son of Fujiwara no Fujimaro, he rose to Head Chamberlain and Commander of the Right Military Guards. Famed as a calligrapher, he is one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "Ikubaku no," means how many, and expresses a question.
Second line, "ta o tsukureba ka," joins causal "ba" with interrogative "ka": is it because you farm so many fields?
Third line, "hototogisu," is the cuckoo, a bird that sings at planting time and was linked with farm work.
Fourth line, "shide no taosa o," is an epithet of the cuckoo, here taken as "taosa," the one who directs the planting.
Fifth line, "asana asana yobu," treats the cuckoo's morning song as a call summoning the field-master.
Author: Fujiwara no Toshiyuki
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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