Awaiting the Fifth Month,
O mountain cuckoo,
beat your wings—
and even now, I pray,
sing in last year’s voice.
- Meaning
- O mountain cuckoo, waiting for the Fifth Month—beat your wings and even now, I wish you would sing in that same voice as last year.
- Commentary
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Book III, Summer Poems
Though it is not yet the Fifth Month, the poet longs to hear the cuckoo’s song and addresses the bird as if in conversation.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- At my dwelling, the wisteria waves by the pond have bloomed; when will the mountain cuckoo come and sing?
- Perhaps it would not share the words of praise— “how lovely”— so, lagging behind the spring, it blooms alone.
- When the Fifth Month comes, your song will lose its rarity, O cuckoo; before that time arrives, let me hear your fresh young voice.
- Awaiting the Fifth Month, when I catch the scent of orange blossoms, it is the fragrance of one long past that comes to me.