Hototogisu matsu wa hisashiki natsu no yo o nenu ni akenu to tare ka iiken - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

時鳥待つは久しき夏の夜を
寝ぬに明けぬと誰か言ひけん

Roma-ji: Hototogisu matsu wa hisashiki natsu no yo o nenu ni akenu to tare ka iiken
English Translation: For one who waits
for the cuckoo, how long it is,
the summer night!
Who was it that said it dawns
before one has even slept?
Meaning: For one who waits for the cuckoo the summer night is so long; who was it, then, that said it dawns before one has even slept?
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 148

Headnote: "Composed when we wrote five poems on the cuckoo at the residence of the Prince of Ninnaji"
One of five poems on the cuckoo composed at the residence of the Prince of Ninnaji. Summer nights are said to be so short that they dawn before one has slept, yet for one waiting for the cuckoo's song the night is long indeed; who, the poet asks, ever said it was short? Turning the common notion of the brief summer night on its head, the poem conveys the length of a heart waiting for the cuckoo. A long run of poems on the cuckoo begins here.
The author, "Inspector Kinmichi," is Fujiwara no Kinmichi, son of Provisional Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Michisue, who also held the post of Inspector and rose to Provisional Major Counselor.
This poem and the nineteen that follow, through 167, form a sequence on the cuckoo, treating it from many sides: the waiting heart, the first song, the single call, and the voice receding into the distance.

First line, "hototogisu": the cuckoo, a bird that arrives in early summer; longing for its first song was a central theme of summer poetry.
Second line, "matsu wa hisashiki": "long for one who waits."
Third line, "natsu no yo o": "the summer night," thought to be short.
Fourth line, "nenu ni akenu to": in "nenu" the "nu" is the attributive of the negative "zu," and in "akenu" the perfective, giving the common notion that it dawns before one sleeps.
Fifth line, "tare ka iiken": the interrogative "ka" closes with the attributive "ken": "who could have said it?" objecting to the common view. The next poem, 149, also depicts sleepless nights spent waiting for the cuckoo.
Author: Fujiwara no Kinmichi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kamiyama no fumoto ni nareshi aoigusa hikiwakarete mo toshi zo henikeru
Next Poem: Futakoe to kikade ya yamamu hototogisu matsu ni nenu yo no kazu wa tsumorite