Koko ni dani tsurezure ni naku hototogisu mashite Kogoi no mori wa ika ni zo - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ここにだにつれづれになく郭公
ましてこごひの森はいかにぞ

Roma-ji: Koko ni dani tsurezure ni naku hototogisu mashite Kogoi no mori wa ika ni zo
English Translation: Even here, the cuckoo
cries so forlorn, so lonely;
how much more, then,
in the Forest of Child-Longing,
how must it be there, I wonder?
Meaning: Even here the cuckoo cries so forlornly. How much more, then, in the Forest of Kogoi, the forest of longing for a child, how must it be there?
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1282

Headnote: "Sent to the parents when Nobukata, Assistant Commander of the Right Military Guards, had died"
The poet says that even here the cuckoo cries forlornly, and asks how much more it must be so in the Forest of Kogoi. The headnote shows it was sent to the parents when Nobukata, Assistant Commander of the Right Military Guards, died. Laying human weeping over the cuckoo's cry, it says that if even an outsider feels such sorrow, how great must be the grief of parents longing for their child, entrusting the thought to the name of the poetic Forest of Kogoi, "child-longing."
There is no settled view as to whom the author's title, "Minister of the Right," refers. The Minister of the Right ranked next to the Minister of the Left in the Council of State. Who is meant by Nobukata in the headnote is likewise unclear.

First line, "koko ni dani," means "even here," with "dani" a particle that names a lesser thing to imply the greater, answering "mashite" in the fourth line.
Second line, "tsurezure ni naku," is a pivot word: "naku" means the cuckoo "cries" and a person "weeps." "Tsurezure ni" means "forlornly."
Third line, "hototogisu," is the cuckoo, a bird also said to come over the Mountain of Death. The poem breaks after this third line.
Fourth line, "mashite Kogoi no," is a pivot word: "Kogoi" is the poetic "Forest of Kogoi" and "longing" for a child. It sings of the same poetic place as the second line of 1303 in this book, "Kogoi no mori no."
Final line, "mori wa ika ni zo," means "how is it in the forest," imagining the depth of the parents' grief.
Author: Minister of the Right
Source: Shui Wakashu
Prev Poem: Shinobe to ya ayame mo shiranu kokoro ni mo nagakaranu yo no uki ni ueken
Next Poem: Asagao o nani hakanashi to omoiken hito o mo hana wa sa koso mirurame