Ochikaeri nuru tomo kinake hototogisu ima ikuka ka wa samidare no sora - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

をちかへり濡るとも来鳴け時鳥
今いくかかは五月雨の空

Roma-ji: Ochikaeri nuru tomo kinake hototogisu ima ikuka ka wa samidare no sora
English Translation: Over and again,
though you be drenched, come and sing,
O cuckoo:
how many days are left
in this sky of summer rain?
Meaning: Come again and again and sing, cuckoo, even if the rain soaks you; how many more days can this sky of summer rain last?
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 189

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'The Cuckoo in the Rain'"
Composed on the topic "The Cuckoo in the Rain." The poet urges the cuckoo to come and sing again and again even if the rain soaks it, since this sky of summer rain will not last many more days. Overlaying the short time left in the cuckoo's singing season with the few remaining days of the rains, he wishes to hear its voice while he still can.
The author, "Inspector Sukekata," is Minamoto no Sukekata, son of Minamoto no Arikata, who also held the post of Inspector and rose to Provisional Major Counselor. He was valued by Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa as a master of imayō and other court songs.

First line, "ochikaeri": "again and again," a word used of the cuckoo's song.
Second line, "nuru tomo kinake": "tomo" is a concessive hypothetical, and "kinake" commands it to come and sing: "come and sing even if you get wet."
Third line, "hototogisu": an address to the cuckoo. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "ima ikuka ka wa": "ikuka" means how many days, and "ka wa" is rhetorical: "how many days are left? Hardly any."
Fifth line, "samidare no sora": ends on a noun, the same final line as 179 and 184 of this book, carrying the closing words of the summer-rain sequence into a poem on the cuckoo.
Author: Minamoto no Sukekata
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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