Kotowari ya katano no ono ni naku kigisu sa koso wa kari no hito wa tsurakere - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ことわりや交野の小野に鳴くきぎす
さこそは狩りの人はつらけれ

Roma-ji: Kotowari ya katano no ono ni naku kigisu sa koso wa kari no hito wa tsurakere
English Translation: It is only right,
on the little moor of Katano,
that the pheasant cries:
so very cruel it is,
the heart of one who hunts
Meaning: No wonder you cry, pheasant on the moor of Katano; that is how cruel those who hunt can be.
Commentary: Book Four Winter Poems 283

Addressing a pheasant crying on the moor of Katano, the poet sympathizes: no wonder you cry, so cruel are those who hunt. The poet's heart goes out to the hunted pheasant and dwells on the hunter's heartlessness.
Where the two poems before it sang of the hunter and the hawk, this one stands on the side of the hunted pheasant, and the poems on falconry close from a contrasting point of view.
Poems 277 through 293 in this book center on snow, with poems on falconry set among them at 281 through 283.

First line, 'kotowari ya', means it is only right, sympathizing with the pheasant's cries. The poem breaks after the first line.
Second line, 'katano no ono ni', is the moor of Katano in Kawachi, a poetic place known as an imperial hunting ground.
Third line, 'naku kigisu', is the crying pheasant, sung as the hunter's quarry.
Fourth line, 'sa koso wa kari no', means so very much the hunting, koso binding with the realis tsurakere in the final line.
Final line, 'hito wa tsurakere', means are those who hunt cruel, showing the heartlessness of the hunter.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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