初声の聞かまほしさに郭公
夜深く目をもさましつるかな
夜深く目をもさましつるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Hatsukoe no kikamahoshisa ni hototogisu yobukaku me o mo samashitsuru kana
- English Translation
-
In my wish to hear
your first song of the season,
cuckoo, I have
woken from my sleep so deep
in the middle of the night.
- Meaning
- In my longing to hear the cuckoo's first song, I woke up in the dead of night.
- Commentary
-
Book Two Summer Poems 96
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
In the single-minded wish to hear the cuckoo's first song of the year, the poet has woken in the dead of night. The poem simply expresses how the longing for that first song keeps one even from sleep.
First line, "hatsukoe no," refers to the first song of the cuckoo heard that year. The first song appears again in 100 and 103 of this book, and waiting for it becomes a theme of the sequence.
Second line, "kikamahoshisa ni," means "in my wish to hear," with "mahoshi" as an auxiliary of desire. The final line of 106 in this book uses the same "kikamahoshisa ni."
Third line, "hototogisu," names the cuckoo so eagerly awaited. Following the preceding poem's lament that it is slow to sing, this poem shows the poet rising in the night to wait for it.
Fourth line, "yobukaku me o mo," means "my eyes deep in the night." Poem 105 of this book shares this fourth line and the final line exactly, so the two poems have the same second half with different first halves.
Final line, "samashitsuru kana," means "I have woken," with "tsuru" as a perfective auxiliary and "kana" as an exclamatory particle.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Haru kakete kikamu to mo koso omoishika yamahototogisu osoku nakuran
- Next Poem
-
Ie ni kite nani o kataramu ashihiki no yamahototogisu hitokoe mo gana