Satsukiyami sayo fukenurashi hototogisu kannabiyama ni ono ga tsuma yobu

五月闇小夜更けぬらし時鳥
神奈備山におのが妻呼ぶ

Roma-ji: Satsukiyami sayo fukenurashi hototogisu kannabiyama ni ono ga tsuma yobu
English Translation: In the fifth-month dark
night must have grown deep by now:
the hototogisu
on Kannabi Mountain
calls out for its own mate.
Meaning: In the fifth-month dark the night must now be deep—on Kannabi Mountain the hototogisu is calling for its mate.
Commentary: Summer Poems 147

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The hototogisu in the depth of night"
In the deep night of the fifth-month dark, the poet hears the hototogisu calling for its mate on Kannabi Mountain and knows that the night has grown late. The same mountain and theme as the preceding poem are recast within the flow of the deepening night.
The Ruijū text places this poem among "poems found in another manuscript and in printed editions." In the source text consulted, a character in line 2 could not be read, and it has been taken as sayo ("night") from the syllable count.

Line 1, "fifth-month dark," is the opening that runs through the sequence on the hototogisu in the depth of night, and this is its third poem.
Line 2: sayo means "night," with sa a prefix, and rashi infers from the bird's voice that the night has grown late; the poem pauses here. This line directly presents the "depth of night" of the topic.
Line 3 names the singer whose voice grounds the inference.
Line 4 names the same mountain as line 2 of the preceding poem, 146, so the two share one setting.
Line 5, "calls for its own mate," turns the preceding poem's guess, "must be longing for its mate," into a direct depiction of the bird calling.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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