Samidare no kumo no kakareru makimuku no hibara ga mine ni naku hototogisu

五月雨の雲のかかれる巻向の
檜原が峰に鳴く郭公

Roma-ji: Samidare no kumo no kakareru makimuku no hibara ga mine ni naku hototogisu
English Translation: The fifth-month rains' clouds
hang low upon the summit
of Makimuku—
on the peak of cypress groves
there the hototogisu sings.
Meaning: On the peak of the cypress groves of Makimuku, hung with the clouds of the early-summer rain, the hototogisu sings.
Commentary: Summer Poems 154

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The hototogisu"
The poet sings of the hototogisu calling on the peak of the cypress groves of Mount Makimuku in Yamato, wrapped in the clouds of the early-summer rain. Combining the cloud-veiled peak with the bird's voice, he paints the scene in a broad cadence that draws on a Man'yō place name.
Kamo no Mabuchi marked this poem with a circle. "The cypress groves of Makimuku" is a Yamato locale often sung in the Man'yōshū, and this poem too draws on that poetic place.

Line 1 shares the opening with the preceding poem, 153, and this is the last of three poems on the rains and the hototogisu.
Line 2: ru is the attributive of the resultative ri, describing clouds hanging over the peak. From the "dew" of the preceding poem to the "clouds" here, the rainy scene widens from near to far.
Line 3, Makimuku, is a place in Yamato, referring to Mount Makimuku.
Line 4: hibara means a grove of cypress, sung in the Man'yōshū as the cypress groves of Makimuku.
Line 5 is the same as the last line of the preceding poem, so both poems close in the same nominal form.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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