Katsuragi ya takama no yama no hototogisu kumoi no yoso ni nakiwatarunari

葛城や高間の山のほととぎす
雲居のよそに鳴きわたるなり

Roma-ji: Katsuragi ya takama no yama no hototogisu kumoi no yoso ni nakiwatarunari
English Translation: Katsuragi—ah!
on Takama Mountain
the hototogisu
far away beyond the clouds
I can hear it crossing, singing.
Meaning: The hototogisu of Mount Takama in Katsuragi—I hear it singing as it crosses far beyond the clouds.
Commentary: Summer Poems 155

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The hototogisu"
The poet hears the hototogisu of Mount Takama in Katsuragi, rising on the border of Yamato and Kawachi, singing as it crosses far beyond the clouds. Through the towering mountain and the voice passing above the clouds, he draws a vast space.
Kamo no Mabuchi judged line 4 to be in the manner of the poet's later period. Pairing "Katsuragi, Mount Takama" with clouds appears in an anonymous Shin Kokin Wakashū poem on the white clouds of its peak, seen only from afar. In the source text consulted, a character at the end of line 1 could not be read and has been supplied from the Teika text's katsuragi ya.

Line 1: ya is an exclamatory particle, presenting the place name as if calling out to it.
Line 2, Mount Takama, is the highest peak of the Katsuragi range, today's Mount Kongō. Following "the cypress groves of Makimuku" in the preceding poem, Yamato place names continue in sequence.
Line 3 sets the hototogisu as a bird of the high mountains.
Line 4, "far beyond the clouds," lifts the gaze from the cloud-hung peak of the preceding poem to the sky above the clouds.
Line 5: wataru means moving across the sky, and nari infers from sound.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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