Hototogisu naku ya satsuki no unohana no uki koto no ha no shigeki koro kana

時鳥鳴くや五月の卯の花の
うきことの葉のしげきころかな

Roma-ji: Hototogisu naku ya satsuki no unohana no uki koto no ha no shigeki koro kana
English Translation: Cuckoos call aloud
in this fifth month, when
the deutzia blooms;
sorrowful words, like leaves,
grow thick in these days.
Meaning: In the fifth month, when the cuckoo sings and the deutzia blooms, these are days thick with sorrowful words, like leaves.
Commentary: Love Poems 527

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love, on rain"
From the name of the deutzia, unohana, blooming in the cuckoo's fifth month, the poet draws uki, "sorrowful," and laments that these days are thick with painful words. It begins with the same upper verse pattern as the preceding poem.
According to the notes in the base text, the Ruijū text differs in lines 1 and 2. Here naku ya satsuki no is adopted.

Line 1 is the same as line 1 of the preceding poem.
Line 2 is the same as line 2 of the preceding poem.
Line 3 means "of the deutzia," which blooms white in early summer; its sound u leads to uki.
Line 4 means "of sorrowful words," uki echoing u of unohana, and koto no ha meaning both words and leaves.
Line 5 means "these days so thick," overlaying thick foliage and many words; like shigekeredo in 497, it entrusts love's grief to growing things.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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