Hototogisu kikanu mono yue mayowamashi haru o tazunenu yamaji nariseba

ほととぎす聞かぬものゆゑ迷はまし
春を尋ねぬ山路なりせば

Roma-ji: Hototogisu kikanu mono yue mayowamashi haru o tazunenu yamaji nariseba
English Translation: Though the cuckoo's song
I cannot hear, I'd have strayed
and lost my way here,
were this not the mountain path
I walked seeking spring's blossoms.
Meaning: I have not heard the cuckoo, and I would have lost my way as well, had this not been the mountain path I walked in spring in search of the blossoms.
Commentary: Summer Poems 188

Headnote: "Composing five poems on the cuckoo"
The headnote shows that this is the first of five poems composed on the cuckoo. The poet has gone into the mountains to hear the cuckoo but has not heard it. Because this is a mountain path he came to know in spring while seeking blossoms, he has not lost his way; otherwise he would not only have missed the song but strayed from the path as well. The counterfactual pairing of mashi and seba expresses how the experience of spring blossom viewing serves him on the summer path.
The mountain path walked in spring for blossoms and the path walked in summer for the cuckoo are overlaid, showing a life in the mountains that follows the same paths across the seasons. Five poems on the cuckoo follow from here.

First line, “hototogisu”: the bird the poet has come in search of.
Second line, “kikanu mono yue”: mono yue is concessive, though I cannot hear it.
Third line, “mayowamashi”: mashi is counterfactual, answering seba in the last line: I would have lost my way, imagining what did not happen. The poem breaks after the third line and the lower verse is inverted.
Fourth line, “haru o tazunenu”: a path I had not walked in spring in search of blossoms.
Fifth line, “yamaji nariseba”: seba, the irrealis of the past auxiliary ki with ba, makes the counterfactual together with mashi in the third line.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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