音羽山木高く鳴きてほととぎす
君が別れを惜しむべらなり
君が別れを惜しむべらなり
- Roma-ji
-
Otowayama kodakaku nakite hototogisu kimi ga wakare o oshimu beranari
- English Translation
-
On Mount Otowa,
calling high among the trees,
the cuckoo too
seems to grieve
over our parting.
- Meaning
- On Mount Otowa, calling high among the treetops, the cuckoo too seems to grieve over your departure.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Parting Poems 384
Headnote: "Composed when parting from someone near Mount Otowa"
Parting from someone near Mount Otowa, the poet hears the call of the cuckoo high in the trees as a voice grieving over the departure. Letting the "sound" in the mountain's name echo with the bird's call, the poem portrays nature as keeping close to the human heart.
The author, "Tsurayuki," was Ki no Tsurayuki, one of the compilers of the Kokinshū, who wrote its kana preface.
The first line, "Mount Otowa," is a mountain on the border of Yamashiro and Ōmi, and the "sound" (oto) in its name echoes "calling" in the second line.
The second line, "calling high among the trees," uses kodakaku for high in the trees, also suggesting a high-pitched voice.
The third line, "the cuckoo," is a summer bird whose call is often sung in the Kokinshū as something that stirs the heart.
The fourth line, "over your parting," shows what the cuckoo grieves for, linking the bird's call to a human parting.
The last line, "seems to grieve," uses beranari, "it seems," a usage common in early Heian poetry. It is a personification treating the cuckoo's call as a voice grieving over parting. It corresponds to the next poem, which calls on a cricket to cry together and hold the traveler back, pairing the voices of bird and insect.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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Yoso ni nomi koi ya wataramu Shirayama no yuki mirubeku mo aranu waga mi wa
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Morotomo ni nakite todomeyo kirigirisu aki no wakare wa oshiku ya wa aranu