Yomosugara tataku kuina wa ama no to o akete nochi koso oto sezarikere - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

夜もすがらたたく水鶏は天の戸を
開けてのちこそ音せざりけれ

Roma-ji: Yomosugara tataku kuina wa ama no to o akete nochi koso oto sezarikere
English Translation: All the night long
the water rail kept knocking,
but once the door of heaven
had been opened at the dawn
not a sound was heard from it.
Meaning: The water rail that kept knocking all night long fell silent once the door of heaven had opened and day had dawned.
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 64

Using the traditional conceit that the water rail's cry sounds like knocking on a door, the poet wittily observes that once dawn opened the door of heaven, there was no more need to knock, and so the bird fell silent.
After the irises of poem 63, the water rail appears as a creature of the summer night. From the next poem, a run of early-summer rain poems follows.

First line, "all the night long," marks a sound that lasts through the night.
Second line treats the water rail's cry as knocking on a door.
Third line, "the door of heaven," draws on the myth of the Heavenly Rock Door, likening the dawn sky to a door.
Fourth line overlaps "opening" the door with day "dawning." The particle koso governs kere in the final line.
Fifth line delivers the punch line: with the door open, the knocking stops.
Source: Shika Wakashu
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