Nagametsutsu hito matsu yoi no yobukodori izukata e to ka yukikaeruramu - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ながめつつ人待つ宵の呼子鳥
いづ方へとか行き帰るらむ

Roma-ji: Nagametsutsu hito matsu yoi no yobukodori izukata e to ka yukikaeruramu
English Translation: Lost in pensive thought,
waiting for him through the dusk,
I hear the calling bird—
where, I wonder, does it go,
and from where does it come back
Meaning: In the evening, as I sit lost in thought waiting for him, the calling bird cries out—where can it be going to, and coming back from?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems V 942

Headnote: "Composed when Kinyori Ason went only to the woman he had lately begun to visit."
The poet wonders where the calling bird, crying in the evening as she waits lost in thought, is going to and coming back from. Overlaying the bird that cries as if calling someone with the man who goes only to a new woman, she quietly sets her grievance against a husband who does not come home to her.
According to the headnote, she composed it when Fujiwara no Kinyori began going only to a woman he had newly started visiting. It is a lament of a waiting woman, akin to 938 in this book.
The poet, the mother of the Priest Kantan, is known only by that relationship, and little more is recorded of her life. The headnote suggests she was the wife of Fujiwara no Kinyori.

The first line, "Nagametsutsu," means "while lost in thought."
The second line, "hito matsu yoi no," means "of the evening when I wait for him," the dusk when she awaits his visit.
The third line, "yobukodori," means "the calling bird," which cries as if calling someone, standing for the man.
The fourth line, "izukata e to ka," means "to which direction," with "ka" an interrogative binding particle.
The last line, "yukikaeruramu," means "does it go and return," with "ramu" a conjecture about the present, closing the "ka" of the fourth line with the attributive.
Author: Mother of the Priest Kantan
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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