梅が枝にをりたがへたるほととぎす
声のあやめも誰かわくべき
声のあやめも誰かわくべき
- Roma-ji
-
Umegae ni oritagaetaru hototogisu koe no ayame mo tare ka waku beki
- English Translation
-
On a plum tree's branch,
mistaking the season, perched,
this cuckoo—its voice,
made of iris, who could tell
its pattern from any other?
- Meaning
- O cuckoo perched on a plum branch, mistaking the season—who could ever tell apart a voice made of iris?
- Commentary
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Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1489
Headnote: "When, on the fifth day of the fifth month in the reign of Emperor Sanjō, someone presented a cuckoo made of iris root set on a plum branch, and I was commanded to compose a poem on it as a topic."
This is the seventh poem of the sequence on summer. The poet asks who could tell apart the voice, made of iris, of a cuckoo perched on a plum branch out of season. According to the headnote, on the fifth day of the fifth month in Emperor Sanjō's reign, someone presented a cuckoo fashioned from iris root and set on a plum branch, and she was commanded to compose a poem on it.
The author, "Sakon, Female Chamberlain of Emperor Sanjō," was a female chamberlain who served Emperor Sanjō.
The fifth day of the fifth month is the Iris Festival, when iris was thatched on the eaves and herbal balls were hung to ward off evil.
The first line, "umegae ni," presents the plum branch on which the presented object was set. The seasonal mismatch of a spring plum and a summer cuckoo is the conceit of the poem.
In the second line, "oritagaetaru," "ori" plays on "ori," season, and "oru," to break a branch. The bird perched out of season is overlaid on the broken plum branch.
The third line, "hototogisu," is the cuckoo made of iris root. It moves from the cuckoos of the shrine lodge in the earlier poems to an artificial cuckoo.
In the fourth line, "koe no ayame mo," "ayame" plays on "ayame," distinction or pattern, and "ayame," iris. It rests on the cuckoo's being made of iris.
The last line, "tare ka waku beki," is a rhetorical question closing the kakari-musubi of the particle "ka" with the attributive form "beki." No one, it says, could tell apart the voice of an artificial cuckoo, delighting in the excellence of the object given as the topic.
- Author
- Sakon
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Ikuchiyo to kagiranu kimi ga miyo naredo nao oshimaruru kesa no akebono
- Next Poem
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Uchiwatasu ochikatabito ni koto toedo kotaenu kara ni shiruki hana kana