Hototogisu hanatachibana wa niou tomo mi o u no hana no kakine wasure na

ほととぎす花橘は匂ふとも
身をうの花の垣根忘れな

Roma-ji: Hototogisu hanatachibana wa niou tomo mi o u no hana no kakine wasure na
English Translation: O you cuckoo,
though the orange blossoms there
breathe their fragrance sweet,
the deutzia of my sad lot,
its hedge, do not forget it.
Meaning: O cuckoo, however sweetly the mandarin orange blossoms may be scented, do not forget the hedge of deutzia where I live out my sorrowful life.
Commentary: Summer Poems 196

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the cuckoo"
This is the fourth poem on the topic of the cuckoo. However sweetly the tachibana blossoms the cuckoo loves may be scented, the poet asks the bird not to forget the deutzia hedge where he lives his sorrowful life, but to visit it too. The splendid tachibana is set against the deutzia that carries the gloom of his own life.
Answering 182 of this book, where he said one should plant tachibana before waiting for the cuckoo, here the poet hopes to draw the cuckoo even to his own hedge where no tachibana grows.

First line, “hototogisu”: presented as an address to the bird.
Second line, “hanatachibana wa”: singles out the tachibana blossoms that the cuckoo was thought to love.
Third line, “niou tomo”: tomo is a concessive hypothetical, however fragrant they may be.
Fourth line, “mi o u no hana no”: a pivot word, with mi o u, my sorrowful self, and u no hana, deutzia, overlaying the poet's sad lot on the flowers along the hedge.
Fifth line, “kakine wasure na”: na is a final particle expressing a wish, closing with the plea to the cuckoo not to forget the deutzia hedge.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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