From mountain depths,
the cuckoos come and cry,
one after another—
as though asking aloud,
who among them surpasses all.
- Meaning
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The cuckoos coming from the mountains keep crying, as though calling out, ‘who among us is the best?’
- Commentary
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Book III, Summer Poems
The cuckoos are depicted as crying one after another, as if competing with one another.
If the particle “ka” in “tare ka masaru” is taken rhetorically, it can imply that none surpasses oneself.
- Author
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Unknown Poet
- Source
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Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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When I call to mind,
Mount Tokiwa’s cuckoo
cries out aloud,
as though crimson dye were
poured forth from its breast.
-
Your voice I hear,
but never see your tears,
o cuckoo crying—
take, then, my sleeves instead,
soaked through with falling tears.
-
Do not now return
to the mountains, cuckoo bird—
you have come at last;
as long as your voice endures,
cry here at my dwelling.
-
Ah, wait a while—
o cuckoo returning
to the mountain home;
bear a message for me:
I am weary of this world.