Cuckoo—since there are
so many villages where
you go on singing,
still, though I think of you,
I cannot hold you dear.

Meaning

Cuckoo, since there are so many villages where you sing, though I am drawn to you, I cannot quite hold you dear.

Commentary

Episode Forty-Three: "Cuckoo"

There was a prince known as Prince Kaya. He had taken a liking to a certain lady-in-waiting and found various pretexts to summon her.
Yet another man began to show her favor. This man, easygoing in his thoughts, believed that he alone had ties with her.
A third man, having heard that the lady was coquettish and given to inconstancy, devised a letter adorned with a painting of a cuckoo.
This poem was written in that letter.

The lady is likened to the cuckoo. Though he is drawn to her, because she belongs not to him alone, he feels jealousy and cannot wholly hold her dear.

This poem is also included in the Summer section of the Kokinshū as an anonymous poem.

Source

Ise Monogatari

Other

When purple’s hue is deep in its season, so it seems to me— all the grasses of the fields have not withered away.
Since I went forth, even the traces I left have not yet altered— whose passing path, I wonder, has it now come to be?
In name alone stands the field-warden of death— this very morning it cries, for they have sung of many huts for it.
Though many huts belong to the field-warden of death, still I would rely— if in the village where I dwell your voice would never cease.

Cuckoo—since there are so many villages where you go on singing, still, though I think of you, I cannot hold you dear.

Cuckoo—since there are
so many villages where
you go on singing,
still, though I think of you,
I cannot hold you dear.