classic waka stream

荻の葉もややうちそよぐほどなるを
など雁がねの音なかるらん
Roma-ji

Ogi no ha mo yaya uchisoyogu hodo naru o nado karigane no oto nakaruran

English Translation
The leaves of the reeds
little by little begin
to rustle, and yet
why is it the calling geese
have not let their voices sound?
Meaning
The reed leaves have begun, little by little, to rustle in the wind, so why are the cries of the geese still not heard?
Commentary
Book Three Autumn Poems 162

Headnote: "When composing poems on waiting for the cries of geese, around the Eighth Month"
Though the time has come when the reed leaves start to rustle in the autumn wind, the poet wonders why the geese have not yet been heard, longing for their first cries. Sensing autumn's deepening in the sound of the reeds, the poem expresses waiting for the voices of the geese that should come next. According to the headnote, it was composed around the Eighth Month on the theme of waiting for the cries of geese.
The author, written as Egyō Hōshi, was a monk and poet of the mid-Heian period. He associated with the poets who gathered around the monk Anpō, who lived at the Kawara Palace, and he is counted among the Later Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "ogi no ha mo," means "the reed leaves too," taking up the rustling of reed leaves that announced the autumn wind in 139 of this book.
Second line, "yaya uchisoyogu," means "begin little by little to rustle," with "uchi" as a prefix.
Third line, "hodo naru o," means "though the time has come," with the concessive particle "o."
Fourth line, "nado karigane no," means "why the geese's." Geese appear in this poem, and in the following poems the word "kari" echoes the senses of hunting and of fleeting visits.
Final line, "oto nakaruran," means "why is there no sound," with "ran" as an auxiliary of conjecture about cause.
Author
Egyō
Source
Shui Wakashu
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