ほととぎす忍ぶるものを柏木の
もりても声の聞こえけるかな
もりても声の聞こえけるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Hototogisu shinoburu mono o kashiwagi no morite mo koe no kikoekeru kana
- English Translation
-
The cuckoo, though it
keeps its voice so hushed and low,
from the oak grove
has let it slip: I have heard
that song come leaking through
- Meaning
- Though the cuckoo keeps its voice hushed, it has leaked out from the oak grove, and I have heard its song.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1046
Headnote: "Reply."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence on love sung through the things of the Fifth Month, a reply to the preceding poem. Though the cuckoo sings in a hushed voice, its song has leaked from the oak grove and been heard, she answers, playing on the oak as a name for Michinaga, then Assistant Captain of the Military Guards. According to the headnote, it is a reply to Fujiwara no Michinaga's poem.
The author, "Uma no Naishi," was a lady-in-waiting and poet of the mid-Heian period, one of the Later Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
The first line, "hototogisu," takes up the first line of his poem.
In the second line, "mono o" is concessive: though it hides its voice. The soft first songs of the cuckoo in early summer were called "shinobine," hidden notes.
In the third line, "kashiwagi" is the oak, and since the leaf-guarding god was said to dwell in it, it became another name for the Military Guards and the Gate Guards who protected the palace. It points to Michinaga as Assistant Captain of the Military Guards.
In the fourth line, "mori" pivots between "mori," leaking, and "mori," grove. It is the same wordplay as "mori no tsuyu" in 1031, Yoshitsune's poem.
The last line, "kikoekeru kana," means "it has been heard," closing with the exclamatory "kana." Where his poem sang of the hesitation of a first courtship with "mada fuminarenu," she lightly parries that though he means to hide it, word of him has leaked out all the same.
- Author
- Uma no Naishi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Hototogisu koe o kikedo hana no e ni mada fuminarenu mono o koso omoe
- Next Poem
-
Kokoro nomi sora ni naritsutsu hototogisu hitodanome naru ne koso nakarure