Hototogisu matsu yo nagara no samidare ni shigeki ayame no ne ni zo naku naru

郭公待つ夜ながらの五月雨に
しげきあやめのねにぞ鳴くなる

Roma-ji: Hototogisu matsu yo nagara no samidare ni shigeki ayame no ne ni zo naku naru
English Translation: Cuckoo, I await
through the night, while still there falls
the rain of early summer;
like the thick-grown iris roots,
with loud cries one weeps.
Meaning: Waiting for the cuckoo through the night as the early summer rains go on falling, I seem to cry aloud, as thick as the roots of the iris.
Commentary: Love Poems 528

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love, on rain"
Waiting through the night for the cuckoo as the early summer rains fall, the poet draws ne, "cry," from ne, the roots of the thick-grown irises, and weeps aloud as the cuckoo cries.
According to the notes in the base text, the Teika text reads line 5 as ne ni zo nakinuru. Here the base text is followed.

Line 1 names the cuckoo, as in the two preceding poems.
Line 2 means "through the night of waiting," overlaid with waiting for a lover who does not come.
Line 3 means "in the early summer rain," the same rain as in 526.
Line 4 means "of the thick-grown iris," whose roots lead to ne; shigeki is the same word as in the preceding poem.
Line 5 plays on ne, iris roots and crying aloud; zo binds the inferential naru. It closes the three poems on rain.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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