Wasurarete toshi furusato no hototogisu nani ni hitokoe nakite yukuran - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

忘られて年ふるさとの郭公
なにに一声鳴きてゆくらん

Roma-ji: Wasurarete toshi furusato no hototogisu nani ni hitokoe nakite yukuran
English Translation: Forgotten, I stay
in this old place where years go by—
why, O cuckoo,
why should you sing a single note
and then go on your way
Meaning: Here in this old village where I have spent the years forgotten, why does the cuckoo sing a single note and then fly away?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems VI 1006

Headnote: "Composed when a man who had wearied of courting her and sent no word for some two years came around the Fifth Month, said something like 'It has been a long time,' and went away again."
The poet asks why the cuckoo of this old village, where she has spent the years forgotten, sings only one note and then flies away. She likens the man who appeared after two years and promptly left to a cuckoo of the Fifth Month that calls once and is gone, and reproaches his coldness.
According to the headnote, a man who had tired of courting her and sent no word for about two years called around the Fifth Month, said it had been a long time, and left. The Fifth Month is the season of the cuckoo's song, so the time named in the headnote lives in the poem's image. Carrying on the lament of "toshi furu" from the preceding poems, its "toshi furu" also takes on the sense of an old village. A cuckoo appears again in 1020 in this book.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Wasurarete," means "forgotten," with "re" a passive auxiliary.
The second line, "toshi furusato no," means "of the old village where the years go by," with "furu" joining the passing of years and "furusato," an old home. It uses the same "furu" as "toshi o nomi furu" at the end of 1004 in this book.
The third line, "hototogisu," is the cuckoo that sings in the Fifth Month of early summer, overlaid with the visit in that month to stand for a man who rarely calls.
The fourth line, "nani ni hitokoe," means "why only a single note," likening his brief visit to the cuckoo's single call.
The last line, "nakite yukuran," means "why do you sing and go," with "ran" an auxiliary conjecturing a cause.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
Prev Poem: Taetarishi mukashi dani mishi uchihashi o ima wa wataru to oto ni nomi kiku
Next Poem: Tou ya tote sugi naki yado ni kinikeredo koishiki koto zo shirube narikeru