Shide no yama koete kitsuran hototogisu koishiki hito no ue kataranan - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

死出の山越えて来つらん郭公
恋しき人の上語らなん

Roma-ji: Shide no yama koete kitsuran hototogisu koishiki hito no ue kataranan
English Translation: Over Death's Mountain
you must have come to us here,
cuckoo, so I pray,
of the dear one I so miss,
tell me how he fares now.
Meaning: Cuckoo, you who must have crossed the Mountain of Death to come here, tell me how my beloved child is faring.
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1307

Headnote: "On hearing the cuckoo in the year after the prince she had borne had died"
The poet calls on the cuckoo, which must have crossed the Mountain of Death to come, to tell her how her beloved fares. The headnote shows it was composed on hearing the cuckoo in the year after the prince she bore to Emperor Uda had died. Since the cuckoo was thought to travel between this world and the underworld, she asks the bird that must have come from the other world to tell her of her dead child, conveying a mother's aching love. The next poem, 1308, is Taira no Sadafun's poem of sympathy for this grief.
The author, Ise, was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tsugukage, Governor of Ise, and served Onshi, empress of Emperor Uda; favored by Emperor Uda, she bore him a prince. She is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets and is known for her poem "Naniwagata" in the Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "shide no yama," is the Mountain of Death, which the dead are said to cross on their way to the underworld.
Second line, "koete kitsuran," means "you must have crossed and come," with "tsuran" perfective and present conjectural auxiliaries.
Third line, "hototogisu," is the cuckoo, a bird thought to come over the Mountain of Death. It sings of the same bird as the third line of 1282 in this book. The poem breaks after this third line.
Fourth line, "koishiki hito no," means "of the dear one," the prince who died.
Final line, "ue kataranan," means "please tell me how he fares," with "nan" a final particle expressing a wish directed at another.
Author: Ise
Source: Shui Wakashu
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