Nakiwabinu izuchi ka yukan hototogisu nao u no hana no kage wa hanareji - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

鳴きわびぬいづちか行かん郭公
なほ卯の花の影は離れじ

Roma-ji: Nakiwabinu izuchi ka yukan hototogisu nao u no hana no kage wa hanareji
English Translation: I have sung and grieved;
where now am I to go, I wonder,
little cuckoo, I,
yet from the deutzia's shade,
from there I will never part
Meaning: I am worn out with singing—where shall I go now, little cuckoo? Yet I will never leave the shade of the deutzia.
Commentary: Book Four Summer Poems 156

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sent in reproach because a friend did not come even to inquire after her."
A cuckoo weary of singing wonders where to go, yet resolves never to leave the shade of the deutzia. In the inseparable bond of cuckoo and deutzia, the poet lays her own inability to part from the one she loves.
In the text it bears the same headnote as the preceding poem and is set among the sequence of poems sent to a friend who did not visit. The sequence on deutzia hedges closes with this poem.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us. The text gives the author as "yomibito mo," but it is treated here as anonymous.

The first line, "Nakiwabinu," means "I am worn out with singing"; "wabu" means to be at a loss when things do not go as one wishes, and "nu" marks completion. The poem pauses here.
In the second line, "izuchi" means "which way," "ka" is an interrogative particle, and "n" is the attributive form of the volitional auxiliary "mu," completing the kakarimusubi pattern.
The third line, "hototogisu," calls to the cuckoo worn out with singing, overlaying it with the poet herself, who waits with her resentment.
The fourth line, "nao u no hana no," means "still the deutzia's," reaffirming the pairing of deutzia and cuckoo. The sequence of deutzia poems that runs from 148 of this book closes here.
In the last line, "kage" means shade and "ji" negative intention: "I will not leave its shade."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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