夏の夜のふすかとすれば郭公
なくひとこゑにあくるしののめ
なくひとこゑにあくるしののめ
- Roma-ji
-
Natsu no yo no fusu ka to sureba hototogisu
naku hitokoe ni akuru shinonome - English Translation
-
On a summer night,
just as I seem to fall asleep,
the cuckoo’s one cry—
and already the dawn breaks,
light spreading in the east.
- Meaning
- On a summer night, just as I seem to fall asleep, a single cry of the cuckoo—and already dawn begins to break.
- Commentary
-
Book III, Summer Poems
Composed at a poetry contest in the imperial court during the Kanpyō era.
The shortness of summer nights is expressed through the cuckoo’s cry, a familiar seasonal image.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- 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?
- Just as it grows dark, already it turns to dawn— this summer night so brief; is it for this it cries on, the cuckoo in the hills?
- In summer mountains, has the one it longs for gone deep into their depths? raising up its voice in cries, the cuckoo calls and calls.