五月雨に物思ひをれば郭公
夜ふかくなきていづちゆくなむ
夜ふかくなきていづちゆくなむ
- Roma-ji
-
Samidare ni mono omoi oreba hototogisu
yo fukaku nakite izuchi yukunamu - English Translation
-
In early summer rain,
as I dwell in troubled thought,
the cuckoo at night,
cries deep into the darkness—
whither has it flown away?
- Meaning
- While I am lost in thought in the early summer rain, a cuckoo cries late into the night and flies off—where has it gone?
- Commentary
-
Book III, Summer Poems
Composed at a poetry contest in the imperial court during the Kanpyō era.
On a night filled with the sound of rain, the cuckoo cries and flies away into the darkness. Though unseen, the scene is conveyed through sound, and the direction of the bird’s flight seems to reflect the poet’s own troubled thoughts.
- Author
- Ki no Tomonori
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- 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.
- Is it the dark night, or has it lost its way? the cuckoo cries on, unable to pass beyond my dwelling, lingering there.
- Though the orange blooms, where once it made its lodging, have not yet withered, why then has the cuckoo’s cry fallen silent all at once?