風越を夕越えくれば時鳥
麓の雲の底に鳴くなり
麓の雲の底に鳴くなり
- Roma-ji
-
Kazakoshi o yū koekureba hototogisu fumoto no kumo no soko ni naku nari
- English Translation
-
Crossing at evening
over Kazakoshi Peak,
I hear the cuckoo
deep within the clouds that lie
upon the foothills calling
- Meaning
- Crossing Kazakoshi Peak at evening, I hear the cuckoo singing deep within the clouds that lie over the foothills below.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Summer Poems 158
Headnote: "Composed as a poem on the cuckoo"
Composed on the topic of "the cuckoo." Crossing Kazakoshi Peak at dusk, the poet hears the cuckoo singing from deep within the clouds that lie over the foothills below. The composition of a cuckoo singing inside clouds seen from above, from a high peak, gives a fresh traveler's perspective, looking down on clouds one would usually look up at.
The author, "Fujiwara no Kiyosuke Ason," was the son of Fujiwara no Akisuke, Master of the Left Capital Office. Heir to the poetic learning of the Rokujō Fujiwara house, he was one of the foremost scholars of poetry of his day and wrote treatises such as the Fukuro-zōshi. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
First line, "Kazakoshi o": Kazakoshi Peak in Shinano, a poetic place.
Second line, "yū koekureba": the realized condition, "as I came across it at evening."
Third line, "hototogisu": the subject of the lines that follow.
Fourth line, "fumoto no kumo no": "of the clouds over the foothills," seen from the peak. Where the preceding poem, 157, looked up at clouds hanging on a mountain, this one looks down from a peak at clouds below, reversing the vantage from below to above.
Fifth line, "soko ni naku nari": "nari" expresses inference from sound. It shares the closing line of the preceding poem, 157, pairing the two.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kiyosuke
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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