The cuckoo cries
upon the mountain of wait—
for one it awaits;
and I, all at once, as well,
feel my longing deepen still.
- Meaning
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Because the cuckoo cries upon the mountain where one waits for another, I too suddenly feel my longing deepen.
- Commentary
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Book III, Summer Poems
Composed upon hearing the cuckoo cry in the mountains.
Hearing the cuckoo’s voice, the poet finds a sudden longing for another arising within. Its cry, without clear cause, brings about a sense of quiet melancholy.
"Matsuyama" may be taken as a place name, though its exact identification is uncertain.
- Author
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Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
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Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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In the rainy skies
of the Fifth Month, resounding,
the cuckoo cries on—
what sorrow burdens its heart,
that it calls so endlessly?
-
No cuckoo’s voice
is heard here at all, and yet
the mountain echo—
why does it not bring to me
the cry from somewhere afar?
-
Is it of old times
that it still feels such longing,
the cuckoo that cries—
it comes to my former home
and sings there, as once it did?
-
Though it is not I,
the cuckoo, among deutzia,
cries as it flies on—
as if through this weary world,
it wanders in sorrow like me.