Matsu hito no kokoro o shiraba hototogisu tanomoshiku te ya yo o akasamashi

待つ人の心を知らばほととぎす
頼もしくてや夜を明かさまし

Roma-ji: Matsu hito no kokoro o shiraba hototogisu tanomoshiku te ya yo o akasamashi
English Translation: If you knew the heart
of the one who waits for you,
ah, you cuckoo,
then with what trust in you
would one see the long night through.
Meaning: O cuckoo, if only you knew the heart of the one who waits for you, how confidently that one could pass the night until dawn.
Commentary: Summer Poems 185

Headnote: "The cuckoo, composed on behalf of another"
The headnote tells us that this poem on the cuckoo was composed on behalf of someone else. If the cuckoo knew the feelings of the one who waits, that person could pass the night in confidence; but the bird does not know, and so the night is spent in uncertainty. The counterfactual mashi expresses a wish that cannot be fulfilled.
Where the preceding poems spoke of the poet's own waiting, this one is written from the position of another who waits, moving the same longing into someone else's heart.

First line, “matsu hito no”: the person waiting for the cuckoo's song.
Second line, “kokoro o shiraba”: the irrealis form with ba, a hypothesis, if you knew that heart; together with mashi in the last line it forms a counterfactual.
Third line, “hototogisu”: presented as an address to the bird.
Fourth line, “tanomoshiku te ya”: feeling reassured, with ya marking a question.
Fifth line, “yo o akasamashi”: mashi is the counterfactual auxiliary, closing with the lament that if it were so one could pass the night at ease, though it is not so.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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