Inariyama tazune ya mimashi hototogisu matsu ni shirushi no naki to omoeba - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

稲荷山尋ねや見まし時鳥
待つにしるしのなきと思へば

Roma-ji: Inariyama tazune ya mimashi hototogisu matsu ni shirushi no naki to omoeba
English Translation: To Mount Inari
should I go then in my search,
O cuckoo of the hills,
since waiting for you brings me
no sign or reward at all
Meaning: Shall I go seeking the cuckoo on Mount Inari, since I feel that waiting for it brings no reward?
Commentary: Book Eleven Variant Poems 673

Since waiting for the cuckoo's first song brings no result at all, the poet wonders whether to go seeking it on Mount Inari. Drawing on the cedars of the Inari shrine, known as the cedars of the sign, the poem ties them to shirushi, the reward that waiting fails to bring.
This poem is found only in a variant manuscript line of the anthology; in the variant order it is placed after 114 in Book Two. Poem 114 asks for whom the cuckoo would have sung if the poet had not tired of waiting and gone in search of it, corresponding to tazune, seeking, and matsu, waiting, in this poem.

First line, 'Inariyama', means Mount Inari in Yamashiro, where the Inari shrine stands.
Second line, 'tazune ya mimashi', means shall I go and seek, the particle ya answered by the attributive of mashi expressing hesitant intention; the poem breaks after the second line. It corresponds to machikanete tazune in the first and second lines of 114 in Book Two.
Third line, 'hototogisu', means the cuckoo, a bird whose first song is eagerly awaited in early summer.
Fourth line, 'matsu ni shirushi no', means the reward of waiting, shirushi echoing the cedars of the sign on Mount Inari.
Final line, 'naki to omoeba', means since I think there is none, the realis followed by ba expressing a reason. It is inverted with the lines before.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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