郭公一声に明くる夏の夜の
暁がたやあふごなるらむ
暁がたやあふごなるらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Hototogisu hitokoe ni akuru natsu no yo no akatsukigata ya augo naruramu
- English Translation
-
With the cuckoo's call,
just one, the dawn breaks open
on a summer night—
is that hour before the dawn
the only time that we may meet?
- Meaning
- On a summer night that dawns with a single call of the cuckoo, is the brief hour before daybreak the only time we may meet?
- Commentary
-
Book Four Summer Poems 191
Headnote: "After talking with a woman in great secrecy and returning home."
The poet wonders whether the brief hour before dawn on a summer night, which ends with a single call of the cuckoo, is the only time they may meet. He lays the fleetingness of a love that could meet only briefly in secret over the shortness of the summer night.
According to the headnote, it was composed after he had talked with a woman in the utmost secrecy and come home.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The first line, "Hototogisu," places the cuckoo as a bird that sings at dawn. 197 of this book likewise follows "hototogisu" with the "hitokoe," single call, of "akatsukigata," sharing the same words.
The second line, "hitokoe ni akuru," means "dawns with a single call," exaggerating the brevity of the summer night. It is a hypermetric line of eight syllables.
The third line, "natsu no yo no," means "of the short summer night."
The fourth line, "akatsukigata ya," means "the hour before dawn," with "ya" as an interrogative particle. It also echoes "akatsukigata no wakare" in 170 of this book.
In the last line, "augo" means a chance to meet, and the attributive "ramu" completes the kakarimusubi pattern with "ya" in the fourth line.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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