ひぐらしは時と鳴けども片恋に
たわや女我れは時わかず泣く
たわや女我れは時わかず泣く
- Roma-ji
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Higurashi wa toki to nakedomo katakoi ni tawayame ware wa toki wakazu naku
- English Translation
-
The evening cicada
sings at its appointed time,
but in one-sided love
I, a weak and tender girl,
weep on, not knowing the hour.
- Meaning
- The evening cicada sings at its own fixed hour, but I, a frail woman in one-sided love, weep without regard to time.
- Commentary
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Book Ten Summer Love Poems 1982
Headnote: "Love Expressed Through Cicadas"
This poem contrasts the higurashi cicada, which sings at fixed hours, with the speaker, who weeps at any hour for an unrequited love, and its headnote is "Love Expressed Through Cicadas." Overlaying the insect's "naku," singing, with the human "naku," weeping, it expresses the ceaselessness of one-sided sorrow. Whereas 1964 lamented the cicada singing at times of brooding, this poem says it is the speaker herself who weeps without regard to time, reversing the positions of cicada and human.
The first line, "the higurashi," marks the theme.
In the second line, "toki to nakedomo," "domo" is adversative: though it sings at its time, reflecting that the cicada sings at fixed hours such as dusk.
The third line, "katakoi ni," means in unrequited love.
In the fourth line, "tawayame ware wa," "tawayame" means a supple, delicate woman.
The last line, "toki wakazu naku," weeps without distinguishing the hour, closing in contrast to the cicada's singing.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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