Hototogisu yo ni kakuretaru shinobine o itsu ka wa kikan kyō shi suginaba - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

郭公よに隱れたる忍ひねを
いつかはきかんけふしすきなは

Roma-ji: Hototogisu yo ni kakuretaru shinobine o itsu ka wa kikan kyō shi suginaba
English Translation: O cuckoo, your song,
the muffled call you sing in secret,
hidden from the world,
when shall I ever hear it now,
once this day has passed away?
Meaning: When will I ever hear the cuckoo's muffled song, sung in secret and hidden from the world, once this day has gone by?
Commentary: 5 The Cuckoo on the Last Day of the Month

Though the prince meant to visit Izumi Shikibu, he held back for fear of being seen and criticized, and the days went by. On the last day of the fourth month, Izumi Shikibu sent him a poem.
The woman is Izumi Shikibu, daughter of Ōe no Masamune and, as the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi, mother of Koshikibu no Naishi. The Prince of the Dazaifu is Prince Atsumichi, fourth son of Emperor Reizei, so called because he served as Governor-General of the Dazaifu.
On the last day of the fourth month, playing on the "hidden song" of the cuckoo in that month, she composed this poem to urge on the prince, who had not come to her in secret.
Because the prince was surrounded by many attendants at the time, the messenger did not show it to him then but brought it the next morning. Reading it, the prince replied with "Shinobine wa kurushiki mono o hototogisu kodakaki koe o kyō yori wa kike," and two or three days later he came to her in secret.

The first three lines speak of "the muffled song the cuckoo sings hidden from the world"; in the fourth month the cuckoo was said still to sing softly, a song called its "hidden voice," and the image is overlaid with the prince's secret visits.
The lower verses ask "when shall I hear it, once today has passed?" with a rhetorical particle, an intensifying particle and a conditional of completion. If today, the last day of the fourth month, is missed, the hidden song will be heard no more; through this seasonal convention she presses him strongly to come.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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