Hototogisu naku koe ayana satsukiyami kiku hito nashimi ame wa furitsutsu

郭公鳴く声あやな五月闇
聞く人なしみ雨は降りつつ

Roma-ji: Hototogisu naku koe ayana satsukiyami kiku hito nashimi ame wa furitsutsu
English Translation: Hototogisu—
how futile is your singing
in the fifth-month dark:
with no one there to listen,
the rain keeps on falling down.
Meaning: How futile the hototogisu's singing is—in the fifth-month dark, with no one to hear, the rain keeps falling.
Commentary: Summer Poems 148

Headnote: "Alone on a night of heavy rain, the hototogisu"
The poet composed this alone, hearing the hototogisu on a night of heavy rain. In the fifth-month dark the rain falls on and no one is there to listen, so the bird's song seems wasted; yet the poet alone is listening, and his solitude comes to the surface.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on hearing the hototogisu from early evening when the rain was heavy" and line 4 as "with no one listening." Kamo no Mabuchi commented that nashimi in the current Man'yōshū text is an error the poet failed to correct, and that it should read nashi ni.

Line 1 names the singer at the outset.
Line 2: ayana means "futile" or "senseless," and the poem pauses here. It is a word used with darkness, as in Ōshikōchi no Mitsune's line in the Kokin Wakashū calling the spring night's darkness senseless.
Line 3 takes up "fifth-month dark" from the run beginning with 145, singing of a voice in the darkness.
Line 4, kiku hito nashimi, means "since there is no one to hear," with mi on an adjective stem marking the reason.
Line 5: tsutsu expresses continuation, closing with the endless rain and leaving a lingering mood.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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