Ato mireba kokoro Nagusa no hamachidori ima wa koe koso kikamahoshikere - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

跡見れば心なぐさの浜千鳥
今は声こそ聞かまほしけれ

Roma-ji: Ato mireba kokoro Nagusa no hamachidori ima wa koe koso kikamahoshikere
English Translation: Seeing your tracks,
my heart finds comfort, as at
Nagusa's plovers' strand—
and now it is your voice
that I should so love to hear
Meaning: Seeing the tracks of your hand, like plovers' prints on the shore of Nagusa, my heart is consoled—and now it is your voice I long to hear.
Commentary: Book Ten Love Poems II 635

Headnote: "When at last he received a letter from a woman who had not been replying."
The poet says that seeing her handwriting, like a plover's footprints, has comforted his heart, and now he longs to hear her voice. To a woman who has at last replied, he wishes to go further and meet her and hear her voice directly.
According to the headnote, he composed it when he finally received a letter from a woman who had not been replying. It likens a bird's footprints to writing, and 695 in this book likewise layers the plover's tracks with a letter.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Ato mireba," means "seeing the handwriting that is like a plover's tracks," with "ato" an associated word with "hamachidori" in the third line.
In the second line, "Nagusa" is a pivot word joining the Nagusa shore in Kii, a poetic place, and "nagusa," being consoled.
The third line, "hamachidori," is the plover of the beach, whose footprints are likened to writing. 654 and 695 in this book also sing of the "hamachidori."
The fourth line, "ima wa koe koso," means "now it is your voice," with "koso" an emphatic particle. The plover's cry is layered with the beloved's voice.
The last line, "kikamahoshikere," means "I long to hear," closing in the perfective in answer to "koso" in the fourth line, a kakarimusubi pattern.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
Prev Poem: Hito wa isa ware wa naki na no oshikereba mukashi mo ima mo shirazu to o iwan
Next Poem: Kawa to mite wataranu naka ni nagaruru wa iwade mono omou namida narikeri