皆人の待ちし卯の花散りぬとも
鳴く霍公鳥我れ忘れめや
鳴く霍公鳥我れ忘れめや
- Roma-ji
-
Minahito no machishi unohana chirinu tomo naku hototogisu ware wasureme ya
- English Translation
-
Though the deutzia
that everyone awaited
should scatter away,
the cuckoo that sang there then,
could I ever forget it?
- Meaning
- Even if the deutzia that everyone waited for should fall, how could I ever forget the cuckoo's song?
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1482
Headnote: "A poem by Ōtomo no Kiyotsuna"
Even if the deutzia that everyone longed for should fall, the poet says he will never forget the cuckoo that sang there. It expresses a heart that treasures the bird's voice lingering in memory even after the flowers are gone.
The author, Ōtomo no Kiyotsuna, was a member of the Ōtomo clan about whom little is known.
The first line means "everyone."
The second line, with the past "shi," shows that everyone had waited for the deutzia to bloom.
The third line is a concessive supposition: "even if they fall."
The fourth line names the cuckoo that sang in deutzia season. As with the cuckoo sung as the deutzia's companion in 1472 of this book, flower and bird are grasped as a pair.
The final line adds the rhetorical "ya" to the conjectural "me," strongly denying: would I forget? Never.
- Author
- Ōtomo no Kiyotsuna
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Waga yado no hanatachibana ni hototogisu ima koso nakame tomo ni aeru toki
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