The cuckoo's voice that
comes calling and asking is
the same voice, and yet
how hard it is to be sure
under a sky of long rains

Meaning

The cuckoo's calling voice is surely the same one, and yet how uncertain everything is under this sky of long rains.

Commentary

Part One: Hanachirusato

　This came back from the house at Nakagawa. The voice may well be his, she says, but perhaps he has the wrong door—a gentle way of putting him off, and she would go no further. Koremitsu understood and withdrew without pressing. Whether there was a new man visiting, or whether the household was wary of the Minister of the Right's power, Genji was made to feel how the sympathies of the world had shifted.

　"Koto tou" is to call on or address someone, taking up his "cuckoo." "Ana obotsukana" is a sigh at not being able to tell. "The sky of the fifth-month rains" is both the season's overcast and a figure for a situation that cannot be judged. She never states the refusal, letting the weather leave everything unresolved—a way of turning him away that gives no offense.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

The cuckoo's voice that comes calling and asking is the same voice, and yet how hard it is to be sure under a sky of long rains

The cuckoo's voice that
comes calling and asking is
the same voice, and yet
how hard it is to be sure
under a sky of long rains