Omou koto chie ni ya shigeki yobukodori Shinoda no mori no kata ni naku nari - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

思ふこと千枝にやしげき呼子鳥
信太の森のかたに鳴くなり

Roma-ji: Omou koto chie ni ya shigeki yobukodori Shinoda no mori no kata ni naku nari
English Translation: Are the things it longs for
thick as a thousand branches?
The calling bird
toward the forest of Shinoda
is crying out, I hear
Meaning: Are its longings as thick as a thousand branches? The calling bird seems to be crying out toward the forest of Shinoda.
Commentary: Book Two Spring Poems II 107

Headnote: "Composed on the calling bird when presenting a hundred-poem sequence in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Composed on the "calling bird" for the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence. The calling bird cries again and again toward the forest of Shinoda; the poet wonders whether its longings are as thick as the thousand branches of the camphor tree there. Drawing on an old poem about Shinoda's camphor tree dividing into a thousand branches, he hears in the bird's calling voice an endless brooding. After a run of poems on falling blossoms, poems on spring birds and flowers begin here.
The author, "Former Middle Counselor Masafusa," is Ōe no Masafusa, son of Ōe no Narihira. As a scholar he served three emperors, Go-Sanjō, Shirakawa and Horikawa, rising to Provisional Middle Counselor. Famed for his learning, he was one of the poets of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence.
It draws on the old poem "Like the camphor tree in the forest of Shinoda in Izumi, my thoughts divide into a thousand branches," linking the many-branched tree to the abundance of one's longing.

First line, "omou koto": "its longings," presented as a guess at the bird's heart.
Second line, "chie ni ya shigeki": "chie" means a thousand branches, recalling the camphor of Shinoda. The interrogative "ya" closes with the attributive "shigeki": are its thoughts as thick as a thousand branches? The poem pauses here.
Third line, "yobukodori": a bird that cries in spring as if calling to people. It is counted among the three birds of the secret Kokinshū teachings, and which bird it refers to is uncertain.
Fourth line, "Shinoda no mori no": the forest of Shinoda in Izumi, a poetic place known for its great camphor trees.
Fifth line, "kata ni naku nari": "nari" expresses inference from sound, "it seems to be crying," as the voice reaches the poet from the direction of the forest.
Author: Oe no Masafusa
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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