Hototogisu miyama izunaru hatsukoe o izure no yado no tare ka kikuramu

English Translation

That first call of his
coming out of the deep hills
the cuckoo's first note
at whose house, and by which one
of us, is it being heard

Meaning

The cuckoo is said to be coming down out of the deep hills: at whose house, and by whom, is that first call being heard?

Commentary

Book Three Summer Poems 192

Headnote: at daybreak, when she was in retreat at Kamo and a cuckoo called.
The subject is the bird's first call of the year. The headnote records that a cuckoo cried at dawn while she was in retreat at Kamo. Like the previous poem it is set at Kamo, and the two stand together.
Ben no Menoto was a lady-in-waiting and poet of the early Kamakura period; her dates are not recorded.
The time is a summer daybreak; the place is Kamo.
The occasion was the cry heard during her retreat.
The cuckoo was believed to stay in the mountains through spring and to come down to the villages in summer. Its first cry of the year was prized, and hearing it counted for much.

The first line names the bird.
The auxiliary in the second line marks report: it is said to be coming out of the deep hills. Nothing is seen; the matter is known by hearsay.
The third line gives the year's first call.
In the fourth and fifth lines an interrogative particle governs an auxiliary of present conjecture: she has heard it herself, and asks who else is hearing it.
By the headnote she has heard the bird. That she still thinks of other ears follows from the value set on the first call, and from a wish to know whether it was hers alone. The previous poem spoke from the side of one waiting; this one speaks from the side of one who has heard, and the two make a pair.

Author

Ben no Menoto

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other