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
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On a summer night, just as I seem to fall asleep, a single cry of the cuckoo—and already dawn begins to break.
- Commentary
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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
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Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
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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?
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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.