Miyakobito nede matsurame ya hototogisu ima zo yamabe o nakite izu naru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

都人寝で待つらめや郭公
今ぞ山辺を鳴きて出づなる

Roma-ji: Miyakobito nede matsurame ya hototogisu ima zo yamabe o nakite izu naru
English Translation: Those in the capital,
do they wait with sleepless eyes?
Cuckoo, I hear,
right now from the hills nearby,
comes out singing on its way.
Meaning: Do the people of the capital wait up without sleeping? Surely not. Yet even now the cuckoo seems to be coming out of the hills, singing as it goes.
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 102

Headnote: "For the palace poetry contest of the second year of Kanna"
Hearing the cuckoo come singing out of the hills at this very moment, the poet imagines that the people of the capital are surely not waiting up for it. The poem suggests both her pride at surpassing others in waiting for the first song and her joy at hearing it early, near the mountain village. According to the headnote, it was submitted to the palace poetry contest held in the second year of Kanna under Emperor Kazan.
The author, called the Mother of the Right Commander Michitsuna, is the Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna. A daughter of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu, she became the wife of Fujiwara no Kaneie and bore Michitsuna. She is known as the author of the Kagerō Diary.

First line, "miyakobito," refers to the people of the capital. Contrasting herself, hearing the voice near the hills, with those sleeping in the capital, the poem builds on a contrast of near and far.
Second line, "nede matsurame ya," means "do they wait without sleeping? Surely not," with "rame," the realis form of the present conjectural "ramu," and "ya" as a rhetorical particle. The poem pauses here.
Third line, "hototogisu," is the cuckoo emerging from the hills.
Fourth line, "ima zo yamabe o," uses the emphatic particle "zo," which is resolved by "naru" in the final line. Following 100 and 101 of this book, it sings of the cuckoo leaving the mountains.
Final line, "nakite izu naru," means "it seems to come out singing," with "naru," the attributive of the auxiliary "nari," which infers from sound. Like "nakiwataru naru" in 100, it guesses at the bird's movement from its voice alone.
Author: The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Source: Shui Wakashu
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