Tokoro kara kikigataki ka to hototogisu sato o kaete mo matan to zo omou

所から聞き難きかと郭公
里を変へても待たんとぞ思ふ

Roma-ji: Tokoro kara kikigataki ka to hototogisu sato o kaete mo matan to zo omou
English Translation: Is it the place itself
that makes it hard to hear you?
O cuckoo,
though I change the village I dwell in,
I think I shall wait for you.
Meaning: Thinking it may be the place that makes the cuckoo hard to hear, I mean to wait for it even if I must change the village where I live.
Commentary: One Hundred Poems 1466

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten Poems on the Cuckoo"
The fourth of the ten poems on the cuckoo. Wondering whether it is the place that keeps him from hearing the cuckoo, he resolves to wait even if he must move to another village.
It exaggerates his eagerness, willing to move house to hear a single call. Continuing the waiting of the preceding poem, it carries it forward into the act of changing where one waits.

First line, “tokoro kara”: kara marks cause, "because of the place."
Second line, “kikigataki ka to”: wondering whether it is hard to hear.
Third line, “hototogisu”: the bird awaited.
Fourth line, “sato o kaete mo”: even changing the village where one lives.
Fifth line, “matan to zo omou”: the binding particle zo concludes with the attributive omou, strengthening "I mean to wait."
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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