Hototogisu kite wa tabi to ya nakiwataru ware wa wakare no oshiki miyako o - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ほととぎす来ては旅とや鳴き渡る
我は別れの惜しき都を

Roma-ji: Hototogisu kite wa tabi to ya nakiwataru ware wa wakare no oshiki miyako o
English Translation: Little cuckoo, you
come, and call it but a journey,
singing as you pass?
While I, from this capital,
am grieved to have to part
Meaning: Little cuckoo, do you come here and call it a mere journey, singing as you pass over? For me it is the capital, and I grieve to leave it.
Commentary: Book Four Summer Poems 176

Headnote: "Around the Fourth or Fifth Month, when he was about to go down to a distant province, on hearing a cuckoo."
The poet wonders whether the cuckoo, coming to the capital, flies over singing as if it were only a journey, when for him the capital is hard to leave. He sets the cuckoo, which comes from the mountains to sing over the city, against himself, who must leave it for a distant province, voicing his sorrow at parting.
According to the headnote, it was composed around the Fourth or Fifth Month, when he was about to go down to a distant province and heard a cuckoo.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Hototogisu," places the cuckoo as a bird that comes from the mountains to sing in the capital.
The second line, "kite wa tabi to ya," means "do you come and call it a journey?" with "ya" as an interrogative particle.
The third line, "nakiwataru," means "flies over singing," and in the attributive it completes the kakarimusubi pattern with "ya" in the second line. The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "ware wa wakare no," means "I, at parting," setting the poet against the cuckoo.
The last line, "oshiki miyako o," means "the capital I grieve to leave," with "o" carrying both concession and a sigh. For the cuckoo the capital is only a stop on its way, but for him it is a place hard to part from.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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