Hototogisu matsu ni tsukete ya tomoshi suru hito mo yamabe ni yo o akasuran - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ほととぎすまつにつけてやともしする
人も山辺に夜を明かすらん

Roma-ji: Hototogisu matsu ni tsukete ya tomoshi suru hito mo yamabe ni yo o akasuran
English Translation: Cuckoo,
is it waiting for you that
those who hunt by torch
of pine also on the hills
pass the night until the dawn?
Meaning: Do those who hunt by pine torchlight also spend the night on the hillsides, using the wait for the cuckoo as their excuse?
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 126

Headnote: "For a folding screen at the house of the Nishinomiya Minister of the Left"
The poet wonders whether the hunters who light pine torches on summer nights to hunt deer also spend the night on the hillsides under the pretext of waiting for the cuckoo. With "matsu" meaning both to wait and pine, the poem overlays the hunter's torches and the longing for the cuckoo. According to the headnote, it accompanied a folding screen at the house of Minamoto no Takaakira.
The author, written as Minamoto no Shitagau, is Minamoto no Shitagō. Of the Saga Genji line, he was a scholar and poet of the mid-Heian period. As one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber he took part in compiling the Gosenshū, and he compiled the dictionary Wamyō Ruijushō. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "hototogisu," is the cuckoo awaited at night.
Second line, "matsu ni tsukete ya," is a pivot word in which "matsu" means both waiting for the cuckoo and the pine of a torch. The questioning particle "ya" is resolved by "ran" in the final line.
Third line, "tomoshi suru," refers to the summer-night hunt of deer by torchlight. Poems on torch hunting and deer continue from here through 128 of this book.
Fourth line, "hito mo yamabe ni," means "those people too, on the hillsides," with "mo" adding the sense "just like me, waiting for the cuckoo."
Final line, "yo o akasuran," means "might they pass the night," with "ran," the attributive of the present conjectural auxiliary, closing the construction begun by "ya."
Author: Minamoto no Shitagō
Source: Shui Wakashu
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