Higurashi no koe mo itonaku kikoyuru wa aki yūgure ni nareba narikeri - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ひぐらしの声もいとなく聞こゆるは
秋夕暮になればなりけり

Roma-ji: Higurashi no koe mo itonaku kikoyuru wa aki yūgure ni nareba narikeri
English Translation: That the evening cicadas
are heard crying without pause,
their voices too,
is because it has become
the dusk of an autumn day
Meaning: That the voices of the evening cicadas, too, are heard without pause is, I find, because it has become an autumn dusk.
Commentary: Book Seven Autumn Poems III 420

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet says that the evening cicadas are heard crying without pause because it has become an autumn dusk. In their insistent cries at nightfall, it senses the lonely mood of a late-autumn evening.
Placed after the sequence on autumn leaves, it opens a run of poems on the loneliness of late-autumn dusk.
The poet, called "Tsurayuki," is Ki no Tsurayuki. A son of Ki no Mochiyuki, he was the leading compiler of the Kokin Wakashū and wrote its kana preface. He served as governor of Tosa among other posts, is known as the author of the Tosa Diary, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

The first line, "Higurashi no," means "of the evening cicadas," cicadas that cry "kana kana" at dusk; the name echoes "hi kurashi," spending the day until dark.
In the second line, "itonashi" means without respite, unceasing: "their voices, too, without pause."
The third line, "kikoyuru wa," means "that they are heard."
The fourth line, "aki yūgure ni," means "into an autumn dusk," echoing "higurashi" in the first line.
In the last line, "keri" expresses realization: "it is because it has become so."
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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