Hototogisu mata mo ya naku to mataretsutsu kiku yo shimo koso nerarezarikere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

時鳥またもや鳴くと待たれつつ
聞く夜しもこそ寝られざりけれ

Roma-ji: Hototogisu mata mo ya naku to mataretsutsu kiku yo shimo koso nerarezarikere
English Translation: Wondering, O cuckoo,
whether you might sing again,
I keep on waiting,
and the nights I hear your song
are the nights I cannot sleep
Meaning: Wondering whether the cuckoo will sing again, I cannot help waiting, so that the very nights I hear it are the nights I cannot sleep.
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 153

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
One might expect to sleep content on a night when the cuckoo has been heard, yet the poet cannot help waiting to see whether it will sing again, so that the very nights she hears it are the nights she cannot sleep. Through the paradox that it is the nights of hearing, not of waiting, that keep her awake, the poem expresses an endless attachment to the cuckoo's song.
The author, "Mother of Yorisuke, Minister of Justice," is the mother of Fujiwara no Yorisuke, Minister of Justice. A daughter of Kamo no Naritsugu, chief priest of the Kamo Shrines, she bore Yorisuke to Major Counselor Fujiwara no Tadanori.

First line, "hototogisu": names the subject, the cuckoo.
Second line, "mata mo ya naku to": "ya" is interrogative: "wondering if it will sing again."
Third line, "mataretsutsu": "re" is the continuative of the spontaneous auxiliary "ru" and "tsutsu" marks continuation: "I cannot help waiting."
Fourth line, "kiku yo shimo koso": "shimo" is an emphatic particle and "koso" links with "kere" in the last line: "on the very nights I hear it." Where 149 of this book told of sleepless nights without hearing, this poem says it is the nights of hearing that bring no sleep.
Fifth line, "nerarezarikere": "rare" is the irrealis of the potential "raru," "zari" the negative, and "kere" the realized form of "keri," closing the construction with "koso."
Author: Mother of Fujiwara no Yorisuke
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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