Ayashiki wa matsu hito kara ka hototogisu nakanu ni sae mo nururu sode kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あやしきは待つ人からか時鳥
鳴かぬにさへも濡るる袖かな

Roma-ji: Ayashiki wa matsu hito kara ka hototogisu nakanu ni sae mo nururu sode kana
English Translation: How strange it is:
is it the heart of one who waits?
O cuckoo,
even when you do not sing
my sleeves are wet with tears
Meaning: How strange it is: is it because of the heart of one who waits? Even when the cuckoo does not sing, my sleeves are wet with tears.
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 151

Headnote: "Composed when the cuckoo did not sing while I was in retreat at a mountain temple"
Composed during a retreat at a mountain temple, when the cuckoo did not sing. Hearing the cuckoo is enough to wet one's sleeves with tears of feeling, yet the poet finds his sleeves wet even though it has not sung, and wonders whether this comes from his own waiting heart. Setting the tears of longing beside the tears one would shed on hearing it, and marveling at them, the poem conveys the depth of his waiting for the cuckoo at the mountain temple.
The author, "Priest Dōmyō," is Dōmyō, son of Major Captain of the Right Fujiwara no Michitsuna, who became a Tendai monk and served as superintendent of Tennōji. He was known for his beautiful voice in chanting sutras, and his association with Izumi Shikibu is also recorded.

First line, "ayashiki wa": "what is strange is."
Second line, "matsu hito kara ka": "kara" gives a cause and "ka" is interrogative: "is it because of the one who waits?" The poem pauses here.
Third line, "hototogisu": the subject of "nakanu" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "nakanu ni sae mo": the additive "sae" gives "even though it does not sing," implying that tears on hearing it would be only natural.
Fifth line, "nururu sode kana": "sleeves wet with tears," with the exclamatory "kana." The next poem, 152, likewise overlays waiting for the cuckoo with waiting for a person.
Author: Dōmyō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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