Haru kakete kikamu to mo koso omoishika yamahototogisu osoku nakuran - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

春かけて聞かむともこそ思ひしか
山郭公遅く鳴くらん

Roma-ji: Haru kakete kikamu to mo koso omoishika yamahototogisu osoku nakuran
English Translation: Even in the spring
I had hoped that I might hear
your song, so why then
mountain cuckoo, should you
be so very late to sing?
Meaning: I had hoped to hear you even in spring, so why, mountain cuckoo, are you so late to sing?
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 95

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet had hoped to hear the mountain cuckoo even in spring and is impatient that it is so slow to sing. The poem frankly expresses the longing for the first song of the bird that announces summer.

First line, "haru kakete," means "even from spring." From here until near the end of the book, poems on the cuckoo follow in great numbers, and this poem begins that long sequence.
Second line, "kikamu to mo koso," means "that I would even hear," with "mu" as an auxiliary of intention and "koso" as an emphatic particle, which is resolved by "shika" in the third line.
Third line, "omoishika," means "though I had thought," with "shika," the realis form of the past auxiliary "ki." The resolution of "koso" carries a concessive sense into what follows.
Fourth line, "yamahototogisu," is the cuckoo of the mountains. The cuckoo was thought to come down from the mountains to sing in the villages.
Final line, "osoku nakuran," means "why should you be late to sing," with "ran" as an auxiliary of conjecture about cause.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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