何しかもここだく恋ふる霍公鳥
鳴く声聞けば恋こそまされ
鳴く声聞けば恋こそまされ
- Roma-ji
-
Nani shi kamo kokodaku kouru hototogisu naku koe kikeba koi koso masare
- English Translation
-
Why, I wonder, why
do I long for it so much,
O cuckoo, you bird,
when hearing your singing voice
only makes my longing grow?
- Meaning
- Why do I long so much for the cuckoo, when hearing its song only makes my longing grow?
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1475
Headnote: "A poem on the cuckoo by Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue"
Though she yearns for the cuckoo's voice, the poet finds that once she hears it, her longing only grows. The contradiction between a heart that seeks the bird's voice and one that suffers from it is expressed as a question to herself.
The author, Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue, was a daughter of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and a half-sister of Ōtomo no Tabito. She was the aunt of Ōtomo no Yakamochi and later also his mother-in-law, and she left many poems in the Man'yōshū.
The first line, "why," is a question she puts to herself.
The second line means "that I long for so much," modifying the "cuckoo" of the third line in the attributive form.
The third line names the bird as the object of longing.
The fourth line, "when I hear its voice," leads to the answer to the question in the upper verse.
The final line answers "koso" with the perfective form "masare," stressing that longing only increases. It echoes "my longing grows" at the end of 1419 in this book, and the feeling that birdsong stirs love recurs throughout the book.
- Author
- Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
- Source
- Manyoshu
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