ほととぎすそのかみ山の旅枕
ほのかたらひし空ぞ忘れぬ
ほのかたらひし空ぞ忘れぬ
- Roma-ji
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Hototogisu sono kamiyama no tabimakura hono kataraishi sora zo wasurenu
- English Translation
-
O cuckoo, that night,
long ago on the sacred mountain,
pillowed on my way,
the sky where we faintly spoke—
that I never shall forget.
- Meaning
- O cuckoo—the sky where you faintly called to me, long ago, when I slept on my journey by the sacred mountain—that I never forget.
- Commentary
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Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1486
Headnote: "Recalling the days when I was Kamo Priestess."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on summer. The poet says she has never forgotten the sky where the cuckoo faintly called, long ago, when she slept on a journey by the sacred mountain. According to the headnote, it was composed recalling the days when she served as Kamo Priestess.
The author, "Princess Shokushi," was a daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa. She became Kamo Priestess when young, and after stepping down took the tonsure.
The Kamo Priestess was an unmarried imperial princess who served the Kamo Shrines, and at the Kamo Festival she lodged at the shrine lodge of Upper Kamo. Kamiyama is the mountain north of the Upper Kamo Shrine, said to be where the Kamo deity descended.
The first line, "hototogisu," is the bird that announces summer, here addressed. Following the Kamo Festival of the preceding poem, it sets the cuckoo that sings around the time of the festival.
In the second line, "sono kamiyama no," "sono kami" plays on "sonokami," long ago, and "Kamiyama," the sacred mountain. The days as priestess and the place where she lodged at the festival are laid together in one phrase.
The third line, "tabimakura," refers to sleeping on a journey, meaning her lodging at the shrine lodge during the festival.
In the fourth line, "hono kataraishi," "hono" means "faintly," echoing the sound of "hototogisu" in the first line. "Katarau" means to call back and forth.
The last line, "sora zo wasurenu," closes the kakari-musubi of the particle "zo" with the attributive form "nu." It sings the memory of the sky where she heard the cuckoo as a longing for her days as priestess.
- Author
- Princess Shokushi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Kamiyo ni wa ari mo ya shiken sakurabana kyō no kazashi ni oreru tameshi wa
- Next Poem
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Tachiizuru nagori ariake no tsukikage ni itodo katarau hototogisu kana