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- Sankashu
Magau beki tsuki naki koro no u no hana wa yoru sae sarasu nuno ka to zo miru
In these nights with no moonlight for them to be mistaken for, the deutzia blossoms look to me like white cloth left out to bleach even after dark.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Kamigaki no atari ni saku mo tayori are ya yū kaketari to miyuru u no hana
Is there some bond that makes them bloom here, by the fence of the shrine? These deutzia blossoms look as though sacred white cords had been hung upon them.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu hito ni kataranu ori ni shimo hatsune kiku koso kai nakarikere
O cuckoo, to hear your first song of the year just when I am keeping a vow of silence and can tell no one of it, what a waste it is!
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu uzuki no imi ni ikomoru o omoishirite mo kinaku naru kana
The cuckoo seems to understand that we are shut away in seclusion for the sacred rites of the Fourth Month, and so has come here to sing.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Sato naruru tasogaredoki no hototogisu kikazugao nite mata nanorasen
Cuckoo, grown used to the village and singing at twilight, I will pretend not to have heard you, and so make you call out your name once more.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Waga yado ni hanatachibana o uete koso yamahototogisu matsu bekarikere
Only after planting a flowering mandarin orange tree at my own home should I have waited for the mountain cuckoo.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Tazunureba kikigataki ka to hototogisu koyoi bakari wa machi kokoromin
Perhaps the cuckoo is hard to hear when I go looking for it; so, for tonight at least, I will try simply waiting for it.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu matsu kokoro nomi tsukusasete koe o ba oshimu satsuki narikeri
The cuckoo makes me wear out my heart with waiting, yet grudges me its song; such, I find, is the Fifth Month.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Matsu hito no kokoro o shiraba hototogisu tanomoshiku te ya yo o akasamashi
O cuckoo, if only you knew the heart of the one who waits for you, how confidently that one could pass the night until dawn.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu kikade akenu to tsugegao ni matarenu tori no ne zo kikoyu naru
As if to tell me that dawn has come without my hearing the cuckoo, I hear the crowing of a bird I was not waiting for at all.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu kikade akenuru natsu no yo no Urashima no ko wa makoto narikeri
The summer night has dawned before I heard the cuckoo; now I know that the tale of Urashima, for whom years passed in an instant, was true.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu kikanu mono yue mayowamashi haru o tazunenu yamaji nariseba
I have not heard the cuckoo, and I would have lost my way as well, had this not been the mountain path I walked in spring in search of the blossoms.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Matsu koto wa hatsune made ka to omoishi ni kikifurusarenu hototogisu kana
I thought my waiting would end once I had heard its first song, but the cuckoo is never worn out by hearing, and I long for it still.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Kikiokuru kokoro o gushite hototogisu Takama no yama no mine koenu nari
Taking with it my heart as I listened to it go, the cuckoo seems to have crossed over the peak of Mount Takama.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Ōigawa Ogura no yama no hototogisu iseki ni koe no tomaramashikaba
O cuckoo of Mount Ogura above the Ōi River, if only your voice would be held at the weir, as the water is, and linger here!
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu sono nochi koen yamaji ni mo katarau koe wa kawarazaranan
O cuckoo, on the mountain paths I will cross after this, too, may the voice with which you speak to me so fondly never change.
Sankashu - Saigyō