Saranu dani kaeriyararenu shinonome ni soete katarau hototogisu kana

さらぬだに帰りやられぬしののめに
添へて語らふ郭公かな

Roma-ji: Saranu dani kaeriyararenu shinonome ni soete katarau hototogisu kana
English Translation: Even without this
I could hardly bring myself
to leave in the dawn,
adding its voice, how it talks,
the little cuckoo, to me!
Meaning: In the dawn, when even without it I could hardly bring myself to leave, the cuckoo adds its voice and seems to speak to me.
Commentary: Love Poems 586

Headnote: "The morning after, with the cuckoo"
The topic pairs the morning after with the cuckoo. At dawn, when it is hard enough to leave the beloved's side, the cuckoo too adds its voice as if speaking to him, making it all the harder to go. The bird's call in the summer dawn deepens the reluctance of parting.
Following the two poems on the morning after, a sequence begins here that pairs the morning after with seasonal things, the cuckoo, the mandarin orange blossom, mist and early winter rain, so that the many scenes of the morning of parting are sung one by one.

First line, “saranu dani”: even without that, even if the cuckoo did not sing.
Second line, “kaeriyararenu”: yaru means to carry through to the end: unable to bring myself to leave.
Third line, “shinonome ni”: shinonome is the dawn, answering the morning after of the topic.
Fourth line, “soete katarau”: adding its voice and speaking to me, the cuckoo's call heard as talk.
Fifth line, “hototogisu kana”: exclamatory kana added to a noun to close, answering the cuckoo of the topic.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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