聞き送る心を具してほととぎす
高間の山の峰越えぬなり
高間の山の峰越えぬなり
- Roma-ji
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Kikiokuru kokoro o gushite hototogisu Takama no yama no mine koenu nari
- English Translation
-
As I hear it go,
taking my heart along with it,
the cuckoo, it seems,
over Takama's mountain
now has crossed beyond the peak.
- Meaning
- Taking with it my heart as I listened to it go, the cuckoo seems to have crossed over the peak of Mount Takama.
- Commentary
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Summer Poems 190
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composing five poems on the cuckoo"
This is the third of the five cuckoo poems. As the poet follows the song of the cuckoo growing faint in the distance, his very heart seems carried off with the bird over the peak of Mount Takama. The idea that he listens so intently that his heart flies away with the bird conveys the depth of his longing.
Mount Takama is thought to be an old name for Mount Kongō on the border of Yamato and Kawachi, and it has long been sung of as a poetic place, often with white clouds.
First line, “kikiokuru”: to listen to something as it goes, seeing it off by ear.
Second line, “kokoro o gushite”: gusu means to take along, so the bird carries off even the heart of the one seeing it off.
Third line, “hototogisu”: the bird is presented as the one that leaves, taking the heart with it.
Fourth line, “Takama no yama no”: a poetic place thought to be the old name of Mount Kongō on the border of Yamato and Kawachi.
Fifth line, “mine koenu nari”: nu is perfective and nari infers from sound, so the poet judges from the fading voice that the bird has crossed the peak.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
- Prev Poem
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Matsu koto wa hatsune made ka to omoishi ni kikifurusarenu hototogisu kana
- Next Poem
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Ōigawa Ogura no yama no hototogisu iseki ni koe no tomaramashikaba