聞きてしもなほぞ寝られぬ時鳥
待ちし夜頃の心ならひに
待ちし夜頃の心ならひに
- Roma-ji
-
Kikite shimo nao zo nerarenu hototogisu machishi yogoro no kokoro narai ni
- English Translation
-
Even having heard
I cannot sleep after all
cuckoo, for my heart
has grown used to it, through those
many nights I lay in wait
- Meaning
- Even now that I have heard you, cuckoo, I cannot sleep: my heart has taken the habit, through all those nights of waiting.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Summer Poems 199
Headnote: topic unknown.
The poet cannot sleep even after hearing the bird, because waiting has become a habit. The headnote gives no topic and nothing is known of the circumstances.
The poet, known by his residence, is Minamoto no Arihito (1103-1147), a son of Prince Sukehito who rose to Minister of the Left. Prince Sukehito, poet of the seventieth poem in Book One, was his father.
The time is a summer night; no place is given.
The occasion of composition is not recorded.
The original text carries an editorial note supplying a syllable in the fourth line; the reading given in the phonetic line is followed here.
The particle in the first line is emphatic: even having heard it.
The second line joins a potential auxiliary to a negative: still I cannot sleep. The hundred and ninety-fifth and hundred and ninety-seventh poems gave sleeplessness before the voice came; this one gives it after.
The third line names the bird.
The word in the fourth line means a run of nights, so that the waiting was not of one evening but of many.
The phrase at the close names a habit the heart has taken on. The observation is that the habit outlasts its object, and that waiting has become a condition in itself. Within the run on the cuckoo, this poem goes furthest into the state of the waiting mind.
- Author
- Minamoto no Arihito
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Hototogisu mada uchitokenu shinobine wa konu hito o matsu ware nomi zo kiku
- Next Poem
-
U no hana no kakine naranedo hototogisu tsuki no katsura no kage ni naku nari