めづらしきこゑならなくに郭公
ここらの年をあかずもあるかな
ここらの年をあかずもあるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Mezurashiki koe naranaku ni hototogisu
kokora no toshi o akazu mo aru kana - English Translation
-
not a rare voice
and yet the cuckoo’s calling—
through these many years
never does it weary me
still it leaves me unsated
- Meaning
- Though it is not a rare voice, the cuckoo’s call never wearies me; even through many years, I never tire of it.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitations
A summer poem among those written on a screen painted with scenes of the four seasons, at the fortieth-year celebration banquet of Fujiwara no Sadakuni, composed by the Naishi-no-Kami.
The poem is based on a depiction of a cuckoo in the summer scene of the screen. Though its voice is not especially rare, the poet finds that even after many years, it never grows tiresome, much like the enduring pleasure of viewing cherry blossoms.
“Kokora no toshi” means many years.
- Author
- Ki no Tomonori
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- on Kasuga plain while gathering the young herbs— for ten thousand years the heart that offers up such prayer the gods must surely know it
- the mountain is high so in the clouds they appear— the cherry blossoms never a day does my heart not go there and long to pluck
- through Suminoe pines the autumn wind begins to blow— and with added sound the white waves off the open sea rise and join their voices too
- the plovers are calling mist rises on the Saho River— it must be so now even the leaves upon the hills grow deeper in their autumn hues