Imo ga ie no haiiri ni tateru aoyagi ni ima ya nakuran uguisu no koe - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

妹が家のはひ入りに立てる青柳に
今や鳴くらん鴬の声

Roma-ji: Imo ga ie no haiiri ni tateru aoyagi ni ima ya nakuran uguisu no koe
English Translation: At my love's house there,
on the willow by the gate
standing green and fresh,
might it now be singing,
the warbler's sweet voice?
Meaning: On the green willow standing by the entrance of my beloved's house, might the warbler be singing even now?
Commentary: Book One Spring Poems I 41

Headnote: "Thinking of the willow in front of the house of a woman he used to visit and stay with."
Picturing the green willow standing at the entrance of his beloved's house, the poet wonders whether a warbler is singing there now. Imagining the spring scene at his distant lover's home, he expresses his longing for her.
According to the headnote, it was composed while thinking of the willow in front of the house of a woman he used to visit.
The poet, called "Mitsune," is Ōshikōchi no Mitsune. One of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū, he served as a minor official in Kai and Izumi provinces, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

The first line, "At my love's house there," means "of my beloved's house," and has six syllables, one more than the norm.
In the second line, "haiiri" means the entrance of a house, and "tateru" means "standing."
The third line, "on the willow," names a newly budding willow. Amid the many warbler poems of this book, it is charming that the warbler is set in a willow rather than a plum.
In the fourth line, "ya" is an interrogative particle forming a kakarimusubi pattern with the attributive "ran." "Ran" is a present conjecture, imagining the present scene out of sight.
The last line, "the warbler's sweet voice," ends on a noun, leaving the imagined song at the beloved's house as a lingering echo. It shares its last line with 40 of this book.
Author: Oshikochi no Mitsune
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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