Izukata ni nakite yukuramu hototogisu yodo no watari no mada yobukaki ni - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いづ方に鳴きて行くらむ郭公
淀の渡りのまだ夜深きに

Roma-ji: Izukata ni nakite yukuramu hototogisu yodo no watari no mada yobukaki ni
English Translation: Toward what direction
are you singing as you go,
cuckoo,
from the crossing at Yodo
while the night is still so deep?
Meaning: Which way are you heading as you sing, cuckoo, while the night is still deep at the Yodo crossing?
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 113

Headnote: "For a folding screen in the reign of Tenryaku, at a scene showing people crossing at Yodo"
At the Yodo crossing, while the night is still deep, the poet wonders where the cuckoo is heading as it flies off singing. The scene of a voice alone receding into the darkness is sung as the feeling of the travelers painted at the crossing on the screen. According to the headnote, it accompanied a scene of people crossing at Yodo on a folding screen made in the Tenryaku era of Emperor Murakami.
Mibu no Tadami was a poet of the mid-Heian period and the son of Mibu no Tadamine. He is known for the poem with which he competed against Taira no Kanemori at the palace poetry contest of the fourth year of Tentoku, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "izukata ni," means "toward which direction."
Second line, "nakite yukuramu," means "are you going as you sing," with "ramu" as an auxiliary of present conjecture. The poem pauses here, in inverted order with the second half.
Third line, "hototogisu," is the cuckoo flying and singing through the deep night sky.
Fourth line, "yodo no watari no," refers to the ferry crossing at Yodo in Yamashiro Province. Taking up the Yodo River of 108 in this book, and followed by Yodono in the next poem, 114, it continues the poems set at Yodo.
Final line, "mada yobukaki ni," means "while the night is still deep," giving the time after the fact by inversion and heightening the impression of a voice in the darkness.
Author: Mibu no Tadami
Source: Shui Wakashu
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