Matsu koto wa hatsune made ka to omoishi ni kikifurusarenu hototogisu kana

待つことは初音までかと思ひしに
聞きふるされぬほととぎすかな

Roma-ji: Matsu koto wa hatsune made ka to omoishi ni kikifurusarenu hototogisu kana
English Translation: Waiting, so I thought,
would end once I'd heard the first,
but, as I now find,
never worn out by hearing
is the cuckoo's song, ah me!
Meaning: I thought my waiting would end once I had heard its first song, but the cuckoo is never worn out by hearing, and I long for it still.
Commentary: Summer Poems 189

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composing five poems on the cuckoo"
This is the second of the five cuckoo poems. The poet thought that waiting for the cuckoo would end with its first song, and that one hearing would satisfy him; but however often he hears it, he never tires of it and longs to hear it again. The poem shows how deep his attachment to the cuckoo runs even after the first song.
Where the preceding poem followed the mountain path without hearing the song, this one tells of a heart that goes on waiting after hearing it, capturing another side of the longing.

First line, “matsu koto wa”: as for waiting for the cuckoo's song.
Second line, “hatsune made ka to”: guessing that it would last only until the first song of the year.
Third line, “omoishi ni”: shi is the attributive of the past auxiliary ki, and ni is concessive, though I had thought so.
Fourth line, “kikifurusarenu”: never becoming stale from repeated hearing; re is the passive ru and nu the attributive of the negative zu.
Fifth line, “hototogisu kana”: the exclamatory kana closes the poem with feeling for a song that never palls.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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