折りはへて音をのみぞ鳴く郭公
しげきなげきの枝ごとにゐて
しげきなげきの枝ごとにゐて
- Roma-ji
-
Orihaete ne o nomi zo naku hototogisu shigeki nageki no eda goto ni ite
- English Translation
-
On and on it goes,
with nothing but its crying,
the little cuckoo,
perched on every single branch
of the thick-grown tree of grief
- Meaning
- On and on the cuckoo cries, nothing but crying, perched on every branch of the thick-grown tree of grief.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Summer Poems 175
Headnote: "At a time when he had cares on his mind, on hearing a cuckoo."
The poem sings of a cuckoo that perches on every branch of a thick tree and cries on and on. Echoing "ki," tree, in "nageki," grief, it lays the poet's own sorrow over the cuckoo's song.
According to the headnote, it was composed when the poet was brooding over something and heard a cuckoo.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The first line, "Orihaete," means "drawing it out, continuing on and on," and "ori," to break off, is a related word to "eda," branch, in the fourth and last lines.
The second line, "ne o nomi zo naku," means "does nothing but cry," with the particle "zo" forming a kakarimusubi pattern with the attributive "naku." The poem pauses here, inverted with the lower verses. 184 and 196 of this book end with the same "ne o nomi zo naku."
The third line, "hototogisu," is a cuckoo overlaid with the brooding poet himself.
In the fourth line, "nageki" is a pivot word joining "nageki," grief, and "nageki," wood thrown on the fire. "Shigeki" means both thick-grown and plentiful, and is a related word to "eda," branch.
The last line, "eda goto ni ite," means "perched on every branch." Its grief is so great that wherever on the tree of grief it perches, it can only cry.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Utomaruru kokoro shi nakuba hototogisu akanu wakare ni kesa wa kenamashi
- Next Poem
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Hototogisu kite wa tabi to ya nakiwataru ware wa wakare no oshiki miyako o