Ausaka no yamahototogisu nanoru nari seki moru kami ya sora ni touran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢坂の山時鳥名告るなり
関守る神や空に問ふらん

Roma-ji: Ausaka no yamahototogisu nanoru nari seki moru kami ya sora ni touran
English Translation: On Ausaka's slopes
the mountain cuckoo, I hear,
is calling out its name:
does the god who guards the barrier
question it up in the sky?
Meaning: The mountain cuckoo of Ausaka is calling out its name; is the god who guards the barrier questioning it up in the sky?
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 190

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'The Cuckoo on the Barrier Road'"
Composed on the topic "The Cuckoo on the Barrier Road." The cuckoo on Mount Ausaka seems to call out its own name, and the poet wonders whether the god who guards the barrier is questioning the bird as it crosses the sky, as the barrier officials question travelers. The tradition of hearing the cuckoo's cry as calling its own name is wittily likened to the checking of names at a barrier.
The author, "Middle Counselor Morotoki," is Minamoto no Morotoki, son of Minister of the Left Minamoto no Toshifusa, who rose to Provisional Middle Counselor. He is known as the author of the diary Chōshūki and was one of the poets of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence.

First line, "Ausaka no": Ausaka is a poetic place known for its barrier on the border of Yamashiro and Ōmi.
Second line, "yamahototogisu": the cuckoo of the mountains. Poem 188 of this book also speaks of the "mountain cuckoo."
Third line, "nanoru nari": "nanoru" means to announce one's name, as the cuckoo's cry seems to call its own name. "Nari" is inferential, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "seki moru kami ya": "the god who guards the barrier," with the interrogative "ya" linking to "ran" in the last line.
Fifth line, "sora ni touran": "tou" means to question one's name, and "ran," the attributive of present conjecture, closes with "ya." The questioning of travelers' names at the barrier is transferred to the cuckoo in the sky.
Author: Minamoto no Morotoki
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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