軒近く今日しも来鳴く時鳥
ねをやあやめにそへて葺くらん
ねをやあやめにそへて葺くらん
- Roma-ji
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Noki chikaku kyō shimo kinaku hototogisu ne o ya ayame ni soete fukuran
- English Translation
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Near the eaves it comes
to sing on this very day,
the cuckoo:
will it add its voice to roots
of the iris thatching them?
- Meaning
- The cuckoo that comes to sing near the eaves on this very festival day: does it mean to add its voice to the iris roots and thatch the eaves with them?
- Commentary
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Book Three Summer Poems 170
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on irises"
Like the preceding poem, this was composed on the topic of "irises." On this festival day, the cuckoo comes to sing near the eaves thatched with irises; does it mean, the poet asks, to add its "ne," its voice, to the "ne," the roots, of the irises and thatch the eaves with them? Pivoting on "ne," voice and root, it is a witty poem joining two seasonal images, the festival irises and the summer cuckoo. The iris sequence ends here.
The author, "Palace Minister," is Fujiwara no Yoshimichi, eldest son of Regent Kujō Kanezane, who rose to Palace Minister while still young but died suddenly in 1188 at the age of twenty-two.
First line, "noki chikaku": "near the eaves" thatched with irises.
Second line, "kyō shimo kinaku": "shimo" is emphatic, "on this very day" of the festival, and "kinaku" means to come and sing.
Third line, "hototogisu": the subject of the lines that follow. The cuckoo sequence that ran through 167 of this book is taken up again within the iris poems.
Fourth line, "ne o ya ayame ni": "ne" is a pivot word for the cuckoo's "voice" and the iris "root." The interrogative "ya" links with "ran" in the last line.
Fifth line, "soete fukuran": "fuku" means to thatch, and "ran," the attributive of present conjecture, closes with "ya."
- Author
- Fujiwara no Yoshimichi
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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Samidare ni nurenure hikamu ayamegusa numa no iwagaki nami mo koso kose
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Tada naranu hanatachibana no nioi kana yosouru sode wa tare to nakeredo