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
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Is it longing for the past even now, that the cuckoo comes to my former home and sings there as it once did?
- Commentary
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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
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Mibu no Tadamine
- Source
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Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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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?
-
The cuckoo cries
upon the mountain of wait—
for one it awaits;
and I, all at once, as well,
feel my longing deepen still.
-
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.
-
Lotus leaves that grow
unstained within muddy waters,
keeping a pure heart—
why then do they, with the dew,
make it seem a shining gem?