Koisu chō nakina ya tatamu hototogisu matsu ni nenu yo no kazu shi tsumoreba - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

恋すてふ無き名や立たむほととぎす
待つに寝ぬ夜の数し積もれば

Roma-ji: Koisu chō nakina ya tatamu hototogisu matsu ni nenu yo no kazu shi tsumoreba
English Translation: That I am in love,
will such a groundless rumor rise,
O little cuckoo,
as waiting for you, the count
of sleepless nights keeps mounting
Meaning: Will people start a groundless rumor that I am in love? For waiting for the cuckoo, my sleepless nights keep piling up.
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 110

As sleepless nights spent waiting for the cuckoo pile up, the poet wonders whether people will spread an unfounded rumor that he is in love. The charm lies in likening nights of waiting for the cuckoo to nights of waiting for a lover.
The opening line 'koisu chō' is the same as the opening of Mibu no Tadami's poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, and the familiar motif of rumors of love is here turned to the heart that waits for the cuckoo.
From poem 104 through poem 126 in this book, poems on the cuckoo follow one another, expressing every mood around the bird: waiting for its first song, seeking it out, rejoicing at hearing it and lamenting having missed it.

First line, 'koisu chō', is a contraction of koisu to iu, meaning that one is in love.
Second line, 'nakina ya tatamu', uses nakina, a groundless rumor; the particle ya binds with the conjectural mu, fearing that one may arise. The poem breaks after the second line and the rest is an inverted statement of the reason.
Third line, 'hototogisu', is the one awaited, revealing that the poet waits not for a lover but for a bird.
Fourth line, 'matsu ni nenu yo no', means the nights I do not sleep for waiting. Like 'the number of nights I have waited' in poem 119, it counts the nights spent waiting for the cuckoo.
Final line, 'kazu shi tsumoreba', uses the emphatic shi: since the number piles up, giving the reason for the second line.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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