Shinanu naru suga no arano ni hototogisu naku koe kikeba toki suginikeri

信濃なる須我の荒野に霍公鳥
鳴く声聞けば時過ぎにけり

Roma-ji: Shinanu naru suga no arano ni hototogisu naku koe kikeba toki suginikeri
English Translation: In Shinano lies
the wild moor of Suga, where
the hototogisu
sings—and hearing that voice, I know
the time has already passed.
Meaning: When I hear the hototogisu singing on the wild moor of Suga in Shinano, I know the time has already gone by.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3352

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Azuma Poems"
Hearing the hototogisu on the moor of Suga, the singer realizes that with the turning of the season the awaited time has slipped away. One reading takes "the time" as a season for farm work; another takes it as the time when a traveler should have returned, which makes this the lament of a woman waiting for someone who has not come back.
The left note reads "The poem above is from Shinano Province." Suga is thought by some to be near Sugadaira in Sanada, Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture. The five opening miscellaneous poems end here, and the love exchanges begin with the next poem.
The poet is unknown. The Azuma uta are thought to have been sung among the people of the eastern provinces, and they are marked by plain, open-hearted expression mixed with local dialect.

First line, "shinanu naru": "Naru" is a contraction of "ni aru," indicating location. "Shinano" is read here in its old form, "Shinanu."
Second line, "suga no arano ni": The wild moor of Suga, an open plain untouched by human hands. "Ni" marks where the bird's voice is heard.
Third line, "hototogisu": A bird heralding summer, often tied in the Man'yōshū to the passing of the seasons and to longing for the past.
Fourth line, "naku koe kikeba": "Ba" marks an established condition: hearing the voice brings the realization.
Final line, "toki suginikeri": "Nikeri" combines completion and exclamation, lamenting the belated realization that the time has gone. Like "sayo fukenikeri" in 3348 at the head of the book, it ends with "nikeri," echoing it as a poem about noticing the passage of time.
Source: Manyoshu
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