Hototogisu akade suginuru koe ni yori ato naki sora o nagametsuru kana - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ほととぎす飽かで過ぎぬる声により
跡なき空を眺めつるかな

Roma-ji: Hototogisu akade suginuru koe ni yori ato naki sora o nagametsuru kana
English Translation: O little cuckoo,
because your voice passed me by
before I had my fill,
I have gazed long, lost in thought,
at the sky that holds no trace
Meaning: Because the cuckoo's song passed by before I had heard my fill, I found myself gazing absently at the empty sky where it left no trace.
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 112

The cuckoo sang and passed before the poet could hear enough, and lingering over the memory of its voice, he simply gazes at a sky in which nothing remains. The poem expresses the emptiness after the voice has gone and the reluctance to let it go.
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, 'hototogisu', opens by naming the theme.
Second line, 'akade suginuru', uses the negative conjunctive de: it passed before I was satisfied.
Third line, 'koe ni yori', means because of its voice, giving the reason for what follows.
Fourth line, 'ato naki sora o', is the sky with no trace, expressing the emptiness once the bird's voice has vanished. It links by the word sora to 'my heart too is in the air' in the preceding poem, 111.
Final line, 'nagametsuru kana', uses nagamu, to gaze absently while lost in thought; tsuru is the attributive form of the perfective tsu and kana is exclamatory.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
Prev Poem: Hototogisu kokoro mo sora ni akugarete yogare gachi naru miyamabe no sato
Next Poem: Kiku tabi ni mezurashikereba hototogisu itsumo hatsune no kokochi koso sure