Hototogisu naku ya satsuki no satsukiame no harezu mono omou koro ni mo aru kana

時鳥鳴くや五月のさつき雨の
晴れず物思ふ頃にもあるかな

Roma-ji: Hototogisu naku ya satsuki no satsukiame no harezu mono omou koro ni mo aru kana
English Translation: Cuckoos call aloud
in this fifth month, when
the fifth-month rains fall;
so too, unclearing, I brood
in these days of longing.
Meaning: As the early summer rains of the fifth month, when the cuckoo sings, never clear, so these are days when my heart never clears and I brood on love.
Commentary: Love Poems 526

Headnote: "Love, on rain"
As the rains of the fifth month, when the cuckoo sings, fall without clearing, so the poet's heart does not clear as he broods on love in these days. It draws on the Kokinshū poem on a love that cannot tell one thing from another, set in the cuckoo's fifth month.
According to the notes in the base text, the Ruijū and Teika texts read line 3 as samidare no, which perhaps ought to be followed. Here the base text is followed, and line 3 has an extra syllable.

Line 1 names the cuckoo.
Line 2 means "in the fifth month when it sings," ya being an exclamatory particle; the same as line 2 of the source poem.
Line 3 means "like the rains of the fifth month," with an extra syllable, echoing satsuki in line 2.
Line 4 overlays rain that does not clear and a heart that does not clear, with an extra syllable.
Line 5 means "these are such days," kana exclamatory. From wind, the poems turn to love on rain.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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