Yūmagure yamakatazukite tatsu tori no haoto ni taka o awasetsuru kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

夕まぐれ山片づきて立つ鳥の
羽音に鷹を合はせつるかな

Roma-ji: Yūmagure yamakatazukite tatsu tori no haoto ni taka o awasetsuru kana
English Translation: In the dimming dusk
from the hillside's edge a bird
rises into flight,
and at the beating of its wings
I have loosed my hawk upon it
Meaning: In the dusk, as a bird took flight from the edge of the hill, I loosed my hawk at the sound of its wings.
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 423

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the topic 'Falconry' when a hundred-poem sequence was presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Composed on the topic of falconry for the Horikawa Hyakushu. In the dusk, the poet says, as a bird took flight from the edge of the hill, he loosed his hawk at the sound of its wings. He captures a tense moment of the hunt, loosing the hawk at once by the sound of wings in a twilight too dim to make out the bird.
The author, "Minamoto no Toshiyori Ason," was the son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu. The central poet of Emperor Horikawa's poetry circle, he compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū at the command of Retired Emperor Shirakawa and wrote the treatise Toshiyori Zuinō. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
The three poems from 421 to 423 are poems on falconry from 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. Falconry, hunting birds by loosing trained hawks, was counted among the sights of winter.

First line, "yūmagure": the dim time of dusk. Where 421 sings of a whole day until dark, this poem catches a single moment at dusk.
Second line, "yamakatazukite": "katazuku" is to lie to one side, the place along one side of the hill, near its foot.
Third line, "tatsu tori no": "tatsu" is for a bird to take flight.
Fourth line, "haoto ni taka o": "at the sound of its wings," catching by sound a bird unseen in the dusk. Following the preceding poem, 422, which traces the hawk by its bell, this poem too relies on sound.
Fifth line, "awasetsuru kana": "awasu" is to loose a hawk at its quarry, and "kana" is exclamatory.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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