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- Kinyo Wakashu
Kiku tabi ni mezurashikereba hototogisu itsumo hatsune no kokochi koso sure
Because it delights me anew each time I hear it, the cuckoo's song always feels like the first song of the year.
Kinyo Wakashu - Yoen
Machikanete tazunezariseba hototogisu tare to ka yama no kai ni nakamashi
Had I not grown impatient and come searching, cuckoo, for whom would you have sung, to no avail, in the mountain gorge?
Kinyo Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshiyori
Odorokasu koe nakariseba hototogisu mada utsutsu ni wa kikazu zo aramashi
Had no voice woken me from sleep, I would not yet have heard the cuckoo in waking life, but only in my dreams.
Hototogisu matsu ni kakarite akasu kana fuji no hana to ya hito wa miruramu
The cuckoo spends the whole night perched on the pine. Do people, seeing it there, take it for wisteria hanging on the pine?
Kinyo Wakashu - Retired Emperor Shirakawa
Matsu hito no yado o ba shirade hototogisu ochi no yamabe o nakite sugu nari
Not knowing the house where someone waits for it, the cuckoo seems to pass by singing along the distant hills.
Hototogisu honomeku koe o izukata to kiki madowashitsu akebono no sora
I heard the cuckoo's faint call, but could not tell from which direction it came: the sky at break of day.
Yado chikaku shibashi katarae hototogisu matsu yo no kazu no tsumoru shirushi ni
Stay a while and sing near my house, cuckoo, as a token of all the nights I have spent waiting for you.
Kinyo Wakashu - Taikenmon-in no Horikawa
Hototogisu mare ni naku yo wa yamabiko no kotauru sae zo ureshikarikeru
On the rare nights when the cuckoo sings, even the mountain echo answering its call fills me with joy.
Yama chikaku ura kogu fune wa hototogisu naku watari koso tomari narikere
For boats rowing along the bay near the mountains, the very spot where the cuckoo sings is where they drop anchor.
Kiki mo aezu kogi zo wakaruru hototogisu waga kokoro naru funade naraneba
Before I can hear your song to the end, I must row away and leave you, cuckoo, for this voyage is not mine to decide.
Hototogisu kumo no taema ni moru tsuki no kage honoka ni mo naki wataru kana
The cuckoo crosses the sky singing, as faint as the moonlight spilling through the gaps in the clouds.
Wagimoko ni ausaka yama no hototogisu akureba kaeru sora ni naku nari
The cuckoo of Ausaka, the hill whose name means meeting one's beloved, seems to sing in the sky of dawn as lovers part and go home.
Hototogisu tazunuru dani mo aru mono o matsu hito ikade koe o kikuramu
Even those who go seeking the cuckoo may fail to hear it; how, then, could someone who only waits ever hear its voice?
Kinyo Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hototogisu kumoji ni madou koe su nari oyami dani seyo samidare no sora
I hear the cuckoo crying as if it had lost its way among the clouds. At least ease off a little, sky of the early summer rains.
Kinyo Wakashu - Minamoto no Tsunenobu
Ayamegusa netaku mo kimi ga towanu kana kyō wa kokoro ni kakare to omou ni
How bitter that you do not come to visit, when today, as the sweet flag is hung from the eaves, I wish I hung upon your heart.
Yorozuyo ni kawaranu mono wa samidare no shizuku ni kaoru ayame narikeri
What remains unchanged through ten thousand ages is the sweet flag, fragrant with the drops of the early summer rain.
Kinyo Wakashu - Minamoto no Tsunenobu