我が衣を君に着せよと霍公鳥
我れをうながす袖に来居つつ
我れをうながす袖に来居つつ
- Roma-ji
-
Waga kinu o kimi ni kise yo to hototogisu ware o unagasu sode ni kiitsutsu
- English Translation
-
"Put this robe of yours
on your dearest one," it says,
hototogisu,
urging me to do it so,
perching, coming to my sleeve.
- Meaning
- "Let your beloved wear your robe," the hototogisu urges me, coming to perch upon my sleeve.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Summer Miscellaneous Poems 1961
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Birds"
This poem hears the voice of a hototogisu singing close by, as if perched on the sleeve, as urging the speaker to put her robe on her beloved. Giving a robe was a token of love, and the speaker entrusts her feelings for the beloved to the bird's voice. The closeness of a bird coming to the sleeve evokes a scene of bird and poet speaking intimately together.
The first line, "my robe," is hypermetric.
The second line, "let him wear it," is presented as the bird's words.
The third line, "hototogisu," is the subject.
The fourth line, "urges me," breaks the poem after the fourth line.
In the last line, "sode ni kiitsutsu," "kiiru" means to come and perch and "tsutsu" marks continuation; by inversion the bird's closeness is shown at the end.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Mono omou to inenu asake ni hototogisu nakite sawataru subenaki made ni
- Next Poem
-
Motsu hito hototogisu o ya mezurashiku ima ka na ga kuru koitsutsu oreba