Ko no kure no shigeki o no ue o hototogisu nakite koyu nari ima shi kurashi mo

木の暗の茂き峰の上を霍公鳥
鳴きて越ゆなり今し来らしも

Roma-ji: Ko no kure no shigeki o no ue o hototogisu nakite koyu nari ima shi kurashi mo
English Translation: Over the summit
dark with thickly growing trees
the hototogisu
crosses, crying as it comes;
now, it seems, it has arrived
Meaning: Over the ridge dark with dense trees, I hear the cuckoo crossing as it calls. It seems it has come at last.
Commentary: Book Twenty Miscellaneous Poems 4305

Headnote: "A poem on the hototogisu."
Over the ridge dark with dense trees the hototogisu crosses, calling; it seems to have come at last: a poem of delight at hearing its first song. The left note says Yakamochi composed it in the fourth month. Waiting eagerly for the hototogisu that announces summer is a frequent theme in Yakamochi's poems, and here he catches the moment he hears the voice with vivid immediacy.
The author, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, son of Ōtomo no Tabito, was at this time Junior Counselor.

The first line, "ko no kure no," means a place darkened by thick trees, showing the summer mountain.
The second line, "shigeki o no ue o," means "over the dense-wooded ridge," giving the bird's path.
The third line, "hototogisu," names the bird that announces summer, whose voice it was a seasonal pleasure to await.
The fourth line, "nakite koyu nari," uses nari, inference from sound: the bird is unseen and known only by its voice. The poem pauses here.
The closing line, "ima shi kurashi mo," with the intensifier shi and rashi, inference from evidence, ends in joy: "it seems it has just come."
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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