Matsu hito no yado o ba shirade hototogisu ochi no yamabe o nakite sugu nari - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

待つ人の宿をば知らでほととぎす
遠の山辺を鳴きて過ぐなり

Roma-ji: Matsu hito no yado o ba shirade hototogisu ochi no yamabe o nakite sugu nari
English Translation: Not knowing the house
where someone waits for its call,
the little cuckoo
along the distant hillside
passes by, singing as it goes
Meaning: Not knowing the house where someone waits for it, the cuckoo seems to pass by singing along the distant hills.
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 117

Unaware of the house where someone is waiting for it, the cuckoo seems to pass by singing along the far-off hills. The poem conveys the frustration and loneliness of a longing that does not reach its object.
It depicts the missed connection between the one who waits and the bird who passes by unknowing, and it resonates with poem 125 in this book, which compares the one who seeks with the one who waits.
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, 'matsu hito no', is the one waiting for the cuckoo, apparently the poet himself.
Second line, 'yado o ba shirade', uses the negative conjunctive de: not knowing the house.
Third line, 'hototogisu', stands as the subject.
Fourth line, 'ochi no yamabe o', uses ochi, a distant place, for hills far from the poet's home.
Final line, 'nakite sugu nari', uses the auditory inferential nari: hearing the distant call, the poet surmises that the bird is passing.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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