郭公なつきそめてしかひもなく
声をよそにも聞きわたるかな
声をよそにも聞きわたるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Hototogisu natsuki someteshi kai mo naku koe o yoso ni mo kikiwataru kana
- English Translation
-
Like the cuckoo bird
that had just begun to tame,
all to no avail—
only from afar your voice
is what I go on hearing
- Meaning
- Like a cuckoo that had just begun to grow tame, you had begun to grow close to me—yet to no avail, for I go on hearing your voice only from afar.
- Commentary
-
Book Thirteen Love Poems V 912
Headnote: "Sent when he went to speak again with a woman he had come to know well, but though he heard her voice she kept herself hidden."
The poet says that it was to no avail that she had begun to grow close to him like a cuckoo growing tame, for he goes on hearing her voice only from afar. He likens the woman who speaks but will not show herself to the cuckoo, heard but seldom seen, and voices his frustration.
According to the headnote, he went again to talk with a woman he knew well, but though he heard her voice she stayed hidden, so he sent this. The cuckoo also appears in 950 and 951 in this book as a bird that will not come near to sing.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The first line, "Hototogisu," names the cuckoo, a bird heard but not seen, standing for the woman.
The second line, "natsuki someteshi," means "that had begun to grow tame," with "teshi" the perfective "tsu" and the past "ki."
The third line, "kai mo naku," means "to no avail."
The fourth line, "koe o yoso ni mo," means "your voice from afar," hearing her without seeing her.
The last line, "kikiwataru kana," means "I go on hearing," with "wataru" adding the sense of continuing over time.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Hitogoto no uki o mo shirazu arikaseshi mukashi nagara no waga mi tomogana
- Next Poem
-
Tsune yori mo okiukaritsuru akatsuki wa tsuyu sae kakaru mono ni zo arikeru