Imogari to Saho no kawabe o waga yukeba sayo ka fukenuru chidori naku nari - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

妹がりと佐保の川辺を我が行けば
小夜か更けぬる千鳥鳴くなり

Roma-ji: Imogari to Saho no kawabe o waga yukeba sayo ka fukenuru chidori naku nari
English Translation: As I make my way
to my beloved's house along
the Saho riverside,
has the night grown late, I wonder?
I hear the plovers crying
Meaning: As I walk along the Saho riverbank on my way to my beloved, has the night grown late? I hear the plovers crying.
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 424

Headnote: "Composed on plovers at a poetry contest held at the house of Provisional Major Counselor Michitsuna"
Composed on plovers at a poetry contest at the house of Provisional Major Counselor Fujiwara no Michitsuna. As he walks along the Saho riverbank on his way to his beloved, the poet says, has the night grown late, for he hears the plovers crying? From the plovers' cries heard on the night road as he hurries to his love, he learns the lateness of the hour, laying his longing over a cold winter riverside.
The author, "Fujiwara no Nagatō," was the son of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu, Governor of Ise, and a brother of the mother of Michitsuna. A poet active under Retired Emperor Kazan, he is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the middle period.
The five poems from 424 to 428 are poems on plovers. Plovers, crying along winter rivers and shores, were counted among the sights of winter.
It shares the conceit of hearing plovers on the night road to one's beloved with Ki no Tsurayuki's poem in the Shūi Wakashū, "Overcome with longing, I go to my beloved; the river wind of the winter night is cold, and the plovers cry."

First line, "imogari to": "imogari" means "to where my beloved is," "imo" being a man's fond word for his wife or beloved.
Second line, "Saho no kawabe o": Saho is a place in Yamato Province, and the Saho River is a poetic place sung of for its plovers.
Third line, "waga yukeba": "ba" gives a fixed condition, "as I go."
Fourth line, "sayo ka fukenuru": the interrogative "ka" closes with the attributive "nuru," "has the night grown late?" The poem pauses here.
Fifth line, "chidori naku nari": "nari" infers from sound, "I hear the plovers crying." 428 of this book has the same last line.
Author: Fujiwara no Nagato
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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