Satsukiyami obotsukanaki ni hototogisu fukaki mine yori nakite izunari

五月闇おぼつかなきにほととぎす
深き峰より鳴きて出づなり

Roma-ji: Satsukiyami obotsukanaki ni hototogisu fukaki mine yori nakite izunari
English Translation: In the fifth-month dark
where nothing can be made out,
the hototogisu
from the deep peaks far away
I can hear it come forth singing.
Meaning: In the murky dark of the fifth month, I hear the hototogisu come forth singing from the deep peaks.
Commentary: Summer Poems 145

Headnote: "The hototogisu in the depth of night"
On a pitch-dark night of the rainy season, the poet senses through its voice alone the hototogisu emerging, singing, from the deep peaks. In darkness where the bird cannot be seen, he follows its flight by the movement of its call.

Line 1, satsukiyami, is the darkness of overcast nights in the rainy season. The next poems, 146 and 147, also begin with "fifth-month dark," running through the three poems on the hototogisu in the depth of night.
Line 2, obotsukanaki ni, means "in the vague uncertainty," indicating the darkness.
Line 3 sets the hototogisu as a bird heard only as a voice in the dark.
Line 4, "from the deep peaks," also resonates with the "depth" of night in the topic.
Line 5: nari infers from sound; the bird's emergence is known by its voice. The same last line appears in 151, which shares this device of catching the bird's appearance through sound.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
Prev Poem: Yūyami no tazutazushiki ni hototogisu koe uraganashi michi ya madoeru
Next Poem: Satsukiyami kannabiyama no hototogisu tsumagoi surashi naku ne kanashimo