むかしべや今もこひしき郭公
ふるさとにしもなきてきつらむ
ふるさとにしもなきてきつらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Mukashibe ya ima mo koishiki hototogisu
furusato ni shi mo nakite kitsuramu - English Translation
-
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?
- Meaning
- Is it longing for the past even now, that the cuckoo comes to my former home and sings there as it once did?
- Commentary
-
Book III, Summer Poems
Composed upon hearing the cuckoo cry in a place once inhabited.
Hearing the cuckoo sing where it once did before, the poet imagines that it too longs for the past. In truth, it is the poet who feels this nostalgia, entrusting that sentiment to the bird.
- Author
- Mibu no Tadamine
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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Hototogisu hito matsuyama ni naku nareba
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Hototogisu ware to wa nashi ni u no hana no
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