夏山にこひしき人やいりにけむ
声ふりたててなく郭公
声ふりたててなく郭公
- Roma-ji
-
Natsuyama ni koishiki hito ya irinikemu
koe furitatete naku hototogisu - English Translation
-
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.
- Meaning
- Has the one it longs for gone into the summer mountains? The cuckoo cries out, raising its voice again and again.
- Commentary
-
Book III, Summer Poems
Composed at a poetry contest in the imperial court during the Kanpyō era.
The cuckoo is personified, and its repeated cries are imagined as longing for a beloved who has gone into the mountains.
- Author
- Ki no Akimine
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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