霍公鳥声聞く小野の秋風に
萩咲きぬれや声の乏しき
萩咲きぬれや声の乏しき
- Roma-ji
-
Hototogisu koe kiku ono no akikaze ni hagi sakinure ya koe no tomoshiki
- English Translation
-
Where the cuckoo's voice
I would hear in the little fields,
has the autumn wind
brought the bush clover to bloom?
For its voice is heard so rarely
- Meaning
- In the fields where I used to hear the cuckoo, has the autumn wind brought the bush clover into bloom? For its voice is heard so rarely now.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1468
Headnote: "A poem on the cuckoo by Prince Oharida no Hirose"
In the fields where he used to hear the cuckoo, the poet wonders whether the autumn wind has blown and brought the bush clover into bloom, for the cuckoo's voice has grown rare. As the voice of the summer bird recedes, he senses the season turning toward autumn.
The author, Prince Oharida no Hirose, was a member of the imperial family in the Nara period; his lineage is unclear.
The first line names the cuckoo, a bird of summer.
In the second line, "o" in "ono" is a prefix, and the line names the fields where he heard the cuckoo.
The third line names the wind that announces autumn. Setting an autumn wind within the summer miscellaneous poems, it catches the turning of the seasons.
The fourth line, the perfective form of "nu" with "ya," surmises "has the bush clover bloomed?" Bush clover is the representative flower of autumn and is sung many times in the autumn miscellaneous poems of this book.
The final line answers the "ya" of the fourth line with the attributive form, regretting that the cuckoo's voice has become rare.
- Author
- Prince Oharida no Hirose
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Hototogisu nakaru kuni ni mo yukiteshika sono naku koe o kikeba kurushi mo
- Next Poem
-
Ashihiki no yamahototogisu na ga nakeba ie naru imo shi tsune ni shinowayu