Yamazato wa sabishikarikeri kogarashi no fuku yūgure no higurashi no koe - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

山里は寂しかりけり木枯らしの
吹く夕暮れのひぐらしの声

Roma-ji: Yamazato wa sabishikarikeri kogarashi no fuku yūgure no higurashi no koe
English Translation: The mountain village,
how lonely it is indeed:
where the cold wind
blows across the falling dusk,
the evening cicada's voice
Meaning: How lonely the mountain village is: the voice of the evening cicada at dusk, as the cold wind blows.
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 303

Headnote: "Composed when a hundred-poem sequence was presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Composed when a hundred-poem sequence was presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa. The mountain village, the poet says, is a lonely place after all, as the voice of the evening cicada comes on the dusk when the cold wind blows. Laying the sound of the chill wind over the cicada's voice, like a lingering trace of summer, he catches the loneliness of a mountain village at dusk in late autumn through the ear.
The author, "Fujiwara no Nakazane Ason," was the son of Fujiwara no Yoshinari. A poet of the cloistered-rule period, he was one of the authors of the hundred-poem sequences presented to Emperor Horikawa, known as the Horikawa Hyakushu.
In the Horikawa Hyakushu, poets such as Minamoto no Toshiyori and Fujiwara no Kinzane each composed a hundred poems on shared topics in Horikawa's reign, and it became the model for later hundred-poem sequences. Many poems in this book are drawn from it.

First line, "yamazato wa": a village in the hills, away from the capital. Autumn in the mountain village recurs in this book, as in 310, 311, 319 and 323.
Second line, "sabishikarikeri": "keri" expresses realization, "how lonely it is," filled with felt experience. The poem pauses here.
Third line, "kogarashi no": "kogarashi" is the strong, cold wind that blows from late autumn into winter.
Fourth line, "fuku yūgure no": "of the dusk when it blows," fixing the hour and leading into the voice in the last line.
Fifth line, "higurashi no koe": the poem ends on a noun. The higurashi is a cicada that sings at dusk, and its voice is named at last as the source of the loneliness.
Author: Fujiwara no Nakazane
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Harukanaru Morokoshi made mo yuku mono wa aki no nezame no kokoro narikeri
Next Poem: Aki no yo wa matsu o harawanu kaze dani mo kanashiki koto no ne o tatezu ya wa