あしひきの木の間立ち潜く霍公鳥
かく聞きそめて後恋ひむかも
かく聞きそめて後恋ひむかも
- Roma-ji
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Ashihiki no ko no ma tachikuku hototogisu kaku kikisomete nochi koimu kamo
- English Translation
-
Of the rugged hills,
darting through between the trees,
O cuckoo, you bird,
now that I've begun to hear you,
later I will long for you
- Meaning
- Now that I have begun to hear the cuckoo darting through the trees on the mountain like this, I will surely long for it later.
- Commentary
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Book Eight Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1495
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems on the cuckoo by Ōtomo no Yakamochi"
Having begun to hear the cuckoo singing as it slips through the trees on the mountain, the poet says that once he grows used to its voice, he will long for it after it falls silent. Within present joy, he anticipates the loneliness of the parting to come.
The author, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and an official of the Nara period. He rose to the post of Middle Counselor, is thought to have been closely involved in compiling the Man'yōshū, and left more poems than anyone else in the anthology.
The first line, "ashihiki no," is properly a pillow word for "mountain," and here shows that these are trees on a mountain.
The second line, "darting through between the trees," depicts the cuckoo threading through the foliage. Taking up "the thickness of the treetops" of the preceding poem, it catches the same summer-mountain bird from close by.
The third line names the bird flying among the trees.
The fourth line means "having begun to hear it like this."
The final line adds "kamo" to the conjectural "mu," foreseeing that he will long for it later.
- Author
- Otomo no Yakamochi
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Natsuyama no konure no shige ni hototogisu naki toyomu naru koe no harukesa
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Waga yado no nadeshiko no hana sakari nari taorite hitome misemu ko mo gamo